Corey Sipkin/New York Daily News
Jason Kidd sends the starters to the bench in the third quarter of the Nets’ blowout loss to the Bulls.
The Nets dressed up for Christmas in coal-black, pajama-top jerseys with striped socks, and still nothing changed. They still couldn’t handle the Bulls’ defensive pressure, shooting 35.2% and turning over the ball 11 times in the first half. They still looked soft whenever it mattered. They still came out dazed from the halftime locker room and were drubbed in the third quarter. They still heard boos during a sorry, 95-78 loss.
It got so bad in that third period, after Mike Dunleavy hit a couple of uncontested layups, that Jason Kidd benched four of the guys out on the floor as punishment.
And no, that didn’t work, either.
“The bottom line is effort,” Kidd told reporters. “We’re not doing that right now. The big thing is when we don’t score the ball, we tend to hang our heads… We don’t get back. If you’re not giving energy or effort, I’ve got to take you out.”
The Nets have now dropped four straight games, and the holiday season only grows more desperate from here. After one gimme at home Friday against Milwaukee, they embark on a three-game road trip to Indiana, San Antonio and Oklahoma City. So you can put them down right now for seven losses in eight games and a probable 10-22 mark, as they fade even faster than the Knicks. The Nets are free-falling into such a deep hole right now that Kidd has begun to look and sound as defeated as his team, rarely getting off his chair anymore to rally the disheartened, inert troops.
Corey Sipkin/New York Daily News
Paul Pierce (l.) and Jason Terry model the Christmas ‘pajama-top’ jerseys.
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Kidd has now scolded his players many times for their performances, to no avail. He has benched guys. He has tried to simplify the offense. He’s euphemized all the slumps as “a process.” He has demoted Lawrence Frank, the defensive specialist. He doesn’t appear to have any tricks left. If Mikhail Prokhorov finally threatens to replace his coach, you get the feeling Kidd might quote Humphrey Bogart in “Casablanca”: “Go ahead and shoot. You’ll be doing me a favor.”
The rout on Wednesday was all too remindful of what happened last spring, when Chicago came to Brooklyn and stole Game 7 in the playoffs. That defeat resulted in the firing of P.J. Carlesimo and the mortgaging of the team’s future for a core of Celtic players who were supposed to transform the Nets into something much tougher and meaner than this.
It was a noble experiment. It also didn’t work, we now know, and so the Nets have just three-plus months left this season to salvage a playoff spot and save face somehow. More likely, Billy King will start looking to blow up the roster sooner than that.
Where is the energy? Where is the fire from this roster with its 36 All-Star appearances? It’s missing. Each game drives home that point in one fashion or another. Against Indiana, the Nets were predictably hammered on the boards. Against Chicago, they didn’t have the stomach for a switching, pestering defense. Other than Mirza Teletovic, who loves being out there, you get the feeling that nobody wants to playing right now with these particular teammates.
Corey Sipkin/New York Daily News
Jason Kidd bemoans the lack of effort as the Nets are no match for the Chicago Bulls on X-mas.
“We have to take care of the ball,” Kidd had said, before the game. Then the Nets were ridiculously sloppy. There was one stretch in the second quarter when Paul Pierce threw away a reckless behind-the-back pass and then Jason Terry whipped a crosscourt pass to nobody. The Bulls went on a 12-point run. The offense was stagnant and the Nets only scored two baskets in the period.
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Then, somehow, it got worse in the second half.
The Nets have trouble winning without Brook Lopez in the lineup. But you can’t really use injuries as an excuse, at least against the Bulls, who are just as shorthanded and came in with a 3-11 record on the road. Chicago came to play, as it always does under Tom Thibodeau. The Nets? Not so much.
Christmas in Brooklyn looked and sounded a lot like Easter in Jersey used to look and sound for this franchise.
“They have every right to express their opinion,” Kidd said, of the jeers and chants from the crowd. “Right now, we’re 90% bad.”
If only their shooting percentage was close to that.
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