The old axiom says the NBA is a make-or-miss league.
The Nets’ first-round playoff series against Philadelphia is even more so, with their hopes of an upset over the 76ers riding almost entirely on 3-point shooting.
“Yeah the great thing is, it’s been a part of our message as a group,” coach Jacque Vaughn said. “I think overall we made it no secret we want to shoot 3s — the more the better. We’re learning the quality of them, what that looks like for our group, how quick we can shoot them.
“So I do think that is something we’ll look at in the series and see if we can make shots. When we make shots, we’re an entirely different team, so we’re looking to make some shots.”
Ever since trading away three-level scorers and midrange monsters Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, the Nets have become far more reliant on high-value 3s. Their 3-point rate went from 16th (.376) before the trade deadline to fifth (.437) in the games since, and will need to rise even higher against the much-bigger 76ers.
Since reshaping the roster, the Nets are 7-0 when they’ve made more than 15 3s, but 6-15 when they didn’t. They were 8-2 when they shot 38.6 percent from deep, but 5-13 when they were under that mark.
To get those kind of clean looks, they’ll need to get stops to get looks in transition.
“Yeah I think it’ll certainly be a key,” Joe Harris said. “I think the biggest thing will be our ability to get out in transition. A lot of times those transition attempts do turn into good 3-point looks. So they’re kinda definitely correlated.”
Vaughn played for current 76ers coach Doc Rivers in 2002-03 with the Magic, and has stayed friendly with his mentor.
“I had the luxury of him coaching me, which is which is pretty cool. So I’ve known him for a long time,” Vaughn said. “Tremendous amount of respect and how many games he’s coached and the way he’s done it, won at a high level and been able to do it with different groups. Shows how good he is.”
“Overall, he has a command of his team. He knows how to communicate with guys so I learned that. At the time Tracy McGrady was the star on our team: How do you talk to your stars on your team? How do you keep them accountable? But how do you love and continue to push the rest of the group. So I learned a lot from him.”
Rivers won Eastern Conference Coach of the Month. He has led Philadelphia to a league-best 42-18 since Dec. 1.
The Sixers’ Joel Embiid was named Eastern Conference Player of the Month for March and April.
He’s the first player since 2019-20 to win three monthly awards in a single season.