Jacque Vaughn defends Nets' approach to Bucks game, resting starters
The Nets returned to Barclays Center off Tuesday's 118-112 win at the Detroit Pistons and played a tight game against the Milwaukee Bucks through three quarters, but they did so -- by choice -- without almost all of their rotation.
Starters Spencer Dinwiddie (rest), Cam Johnson (right knee sprain -- injury maintenance) and Nic Claxton (left ankle sprain -- injury maintenance) sat. Dorian Finney-Smith (left knee soreness) also did not play. Others who did -- Cam Thomas, Mikal Bridges, Royce O'Neale and Day'Ron Sharpe -- logged no more than 16 minutes.
Mainly with rookies and reserves on two-way contracts, the Nets pushed the Eastern Conference's current No. 2 seed -- Brooklyn led 79-78 at the third quarter's 5:21 mark -- until Milwaukee pulled away throughout the final 12 minutes, 144-122. Rookie Jalen Wilson, a second-round pick as the 2023 NBA Draft's No. 51 selection out of Kansas, led the ninth-seeded Nets (15-16) with 21 points and 10 rebounds in 30 minutes.
"My thought was getting a feel and pulse of the game," said Jacque Vaughn. "Mikal played 40 minutes last night. And so, the thought was it wouldn't be wise of me to continue and go down this path in the game and then have him play 40 minutes again. So you have those decisions in the course of the game.
"Ran Cam and Royce and Mikal pretty long in the first quarter, and just envisioned that, at the end of the night, I didn't want them touching 40 minutes again. That's really what it boiled down to."
The Bucks (23-8) overpowered Brooklyn in a 44-30 fourth quarter as Giannis Antetokounmpo (game-high 32) and Khris Middleton (27) combined for 57 points.
Even then, Vaughn took issue with the notion that the Nets treated Milwaukee as an exhibition.
"You know, it's a great thing about this game is these dudes that play -- 450 of 'em -- they're special," Vaughn said. "And it's pretty special to be an NBA player. And I treat 'em (as) such. I don't agree with garbage time. I've said that to our group. At the end of the game, you continue to play. You compete. That's what you do for a living. This is what I do for a living.
"I'm not sure I sat down tonight. I coach from the beginning of the game to the end of the game. That's what you sign up for. I have too much respect for the dudes that suit up and put their body on the line, and the competition level, to even mention the word exhibition. Any guy could have ended their career tonight by one play. And so, I treat it as such.
"It is a(n) honor. It is a sense of gratitude that you do this for a living. And you never ever underestimate that. And if you do, you pay for it. So that was my approach tonight. I coached these dudes as hard as I could tonight, because they deserved it. And each dude that stepped on the floor, they deserve to be coached and they deserve to be on the floor tonight."
