Two years of tanking have taken a mental toll on the Nets.
Nic Claxton is convinced it’ll be over next season, and he’s happy about that.
“It wasn’t always easy, honestly with the lineup changes, with playing with a lot of younger guys at this stage of my career,” Claxton admitted before the Nets’ 123-94 loss to the Pacers on Thursday night at Barclays Center. “This year was rough, obviously. So, we’ve got a few more games this year, we flush that out, we get back to the drawing board this summer and we go from there.
“You can’t let it affect your preparation and your mindset. Even this year I struggled with that some. Going into games you have to go in with the mindset ‘ok, we’re going to win this game.’ But as far as wins and losses, I get what Jordi (Fernandez) is saying. It doesn’t always come with the scoreboard. It can be seeing our rookies go out and spread their wings and gain confidence…It can be me maturing and finding that peace within myself no matter what’s going on out there on the court…Then next year hopefully we get some more actual wins.”
What the Nets (20-60) need is some lottery luck. They came into Thursday clinging to the third-best lottery odds.
Brooklyn’s loss to Indiana only helped its cause. They moved a game clear of the idle Jazz and Kings, tied for fourth.
Losses in their last two games — Friday in Milwaukee and Sunday in Toronto — would guarantee top-three odds in the lottery, and of falling no lower than seventh in the June draft.
Claxton missed his third straight game with a sprained right fifth finger. He likely will end the season averaging 11.7 points and 6.9 boards.
That latter figure needs improvement. Claxton has not only regressed from his old defensive form, but has always struggled on the glass.
“One [key] is getting my teammates getting the easy ones,” Claxton said. “Sometimes you’ve got some rebound-hungry dudes on the team that can make your numbers dip, because when I average more rebounds, my teammates would pretty much let me get the rebounds. That’s one.
“Two, it is just a mentality thing of going after all of the rebounds. Sometimes the rebound numbers can be skewed because my teammate can be right there to get the rebound and we secure the rebound, but if I don’t go after it, I finish the game with a lower number of rebounds, but my teammate grabbed the board. But it is a numbers game at the end of the day with the NBA, so it’s something you always want to just put some focus and energy towards.”
EJ Liddell led the threadbare Nets with 26 points, while Ben Saraf added 19 points, six assists and five boards.
Claxton, Noah Clowney, Egor Demin, Terance Mann, Josh Minnott, Michael Porter Jr., Day’Ron Sharpe, Nolan Traore, Ziaire Williams and Danny Wolf were all out.