Nets’ Jacque Vaughn says ‘guarding the basketball’ was key to win over Pelicans
The Brooklyn Nets had a tough night against the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday. In their 108-102 win over the Pelicans, the Nets had to battle back from a 15-point deficit to win a game in which superstars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving combined to go 16-of-48 (33%) from the field which includes Irving shooting 3-of-10 from behind the three-point line.
Brooklyn did not have a good start to this game as they appeared to be going through the motions and New Orleans took advantage of that. The Pelicans won the first half 64-53 thanks to the play of CJ McCollum and Naji Marshall taking advantage of the Nets’ slacking perimeter defense. However, Brooklyn won the second half 55-38 thanks to improved energy and better effort on defense.
Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn, as he has done throughout this season, made some adjustments after halftime. He went away from playing Yuta Watanabe and leaned into playing Seth Curry and TJ Warren more since they had good game shooting the ball to that point. Vaughn explained in his postgame interview how the Nets were able to come back to win this game:
“Down 11 in an opposing arena and for us to not overall shoot the basketball efficiently tonight and come away to win I think was the biggest adjustment. At halftime, we decided to guard the basketball and take pride in doing it. 38 points for them (the Pelicans) in the second half really shows that by the numbers and just, our overall demeanor.”
The Nets’ next game is Sunday at the Miami Heat.
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