Jacque Vaughn says Nets not looking ahead to challenging 5-game West Coast road trip
The middling Washington Wizards were the last team standing between the Nets and a five-game West Coast road swing. However, speaking to reporters on Friday night ahead of the game, head coach Jacque Vaughn was locked in on the task at hand.
“Tonight we’re going to talk about Washington and this home game,” Vaughn said. “And we’re going to take care of this home court, not look too far ahead.”
Brooklyn’s upcoming stretch of games is brutal. The Nets will face Sacramento, Phoenix, Denver, Golden State and Utah over an eight-day span, five teams who had a combined 54-50 record entering Friday’s games. Sacramento, Phoenix and Denver are all currently playoff or play-in eligible.
It will be the first time Brooklyn has faced these Western Conference opponents this season.
Day’Ron Sharpe is looking forward to the challenge and believes this upcoming stretch could bring the best out of his team.
“Playing hard, playing smart, playing together, buying into the game plan,” Sharpe said. “We’re going to need those coming into a good road trip — buying into the game plan and just paying attention to detail. These are the types of games where we could gel together more… I’m just looking forward to playing these games.”
On the injury front, the Nets could be one step closer to whole by the end of their upcoming trip. Ben Simmons, who has missed 14 straight games because of a left lower back nerve impingement, is expected to be re-evaluated on Dec. 16 — the same day Brooklyn visits the Warriors at Chase Center.
“I think it’s been interesting because we haven’t been whole the entire year,” Vaughn said. “We played one game with our entire roster. What I have liked about this group is we have never used that as an excuse.”
While Vaughn chose not to speak about Brooklyn’s next five opponents, he did share his honest assessment of where his team can still improve 21 games into the season.
“There’s some fringe areas that we can be better at, always thinking as a coach, whether that’s getting to the free-throw line offensively, we’ve moved from 30th to 26,” Vaughn said. “So there’s some love that way. And then defensively, we’ve taken a little bit of a fall defensive rebounding; can we be a top-10 defensive rebounding team? So there’s some things on the periphery that will make us even better. But then at the end of the day, with the schedule we’ve had… I’m trying to get a win, man.”
SMITH JR. A LATE SCRATCH
Nets guard Dennis Smith Jr. was ruled out before tipoff because of upper back soreness. While he did participate at shootaround on Friday, he told trainers that his back was stiff, and the team ultimately decided to err on the side of caution.
Smith was coming off one of his better games of the season on Wednesday in Atlanta, where he finished with 13 points, three rebounds and four assists in just over 21 minutes.
Vaughn told reporters that it is too soon to tell whether Smith’s injury will limit his availability in the team’s upcoming five-game road trip. He missed six straight games from Nov. 19 to Nov. 30 because of a lower back sprain.
WALKER UPDATE
Last week, Vaughn said that Lonnie Walker IV, who has missed three straight games because of a left hamstring strain, was unlikely to travel with the team in their upcoming five-game road trip.
As of Friday night, whether he will do so or not remained unclear.
“Yeah, that’s more travel logistics,” Vaughn said. “Is it best for him to stay back and get treatment here? We haven’t decided that yet. But he will not play on the West Coast road trip, I can tell you that piece.”
Walker has averaged 14.6 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 17 games off the bench this season.
