Nets’ Jacque Vaughn says ‘our juice wasn’t great’ after loss to the Magic
Brooklyn Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn has mentioned at times throughout the season how he likes his teams to play with a lot of “juice” or with energy. Vaughn has always preached that he wants his teams to be about making the effort plays and playing defense regardless of how the offense is performing.
In Sunday’s 119-106 loss to the Orlando Magic, the Nets were out-played in multiple ways because of how energetic and motivated the Magic seem to be throughout the contest. For starters, while Orlando out-rebounded Brooklyn just 47-44, the Magic ran the Nets off the floor by winning the fastbreak points dynamic of the game 21-10. It looked like every time that Orlando got a rebound that they were looking to run and Brooklyn just didn’t have the juice to keep up.
While not necessarily considered a hustle stat, Orlando out-scored Brooklyn in the paint 58-38. It takes some effort to prevent your opponent from consistently getting good looks at the basket and finishing at the basket and for some reason, it seemed like the Nets didn’t want to make that effort to deter the Magic from the rim. Orlando out-scored Brooklyn in the second and third quarters by a combined margin of 68-49 and it looked like the Nets did not have the energy to keep up in the transition game. Here’s how Jacque Vaughn reacted to the Nets lacking juice against the Magic:
“It’s a matter of, can you sustain it (the energy)? You know, first quarter, we were able to hang around a little bit. I don’t think our juice was great. But, we were okay. And so, we were still filling ourselves out a little bit in the ring. But, to sustain it over the course of the night, to play the way we want to play, to defend the way we want to play, to play with pace the way we want to play. Just didn’t have it tonight.”
