Nets’ defensive game plan shows promise: ‘We want to get that ball out of their hands’

For Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn, a football analogy best explains his team’s defensive strategy, a strategy that has paved the way for the Nets to win three straight games and four of their last five with Sunday’s win over the Utah Jazz.

In football, there’s the run and the pass, and a good defense can take away one and make the other as difficult as possible.

The Nets are picking from a comparable set of poisons: They are taking away a team’s No. 1 scoring option and forcing opponents to win with the rest of their roster.

The strategy was on full display as the Nets stumped All-Star forward Lauri Markkenen, who mustered just 23 points on 8-of-21 shooting from the field in his first game back after missing two with a hand injury, three points shy of his season average.

“You know going into the game that number one dude, he knows how to score. He’s done it before probably and he can probably continue to do it again,” head coach Jacque Vaughn said postgame. “Those dudes who bring it every night, they can bring it every night; so we want to get that ball out of their hands.”

Long before Utah rallied back from down 23 to lose at the buzzer, the Nets smothered Markkanen, sending double teams on post touches and putting a body and a long arm in front of every shot. Markkanen started the game shooting 4-of-11 from the field. He made only one of his eight attempts from downtown and turned the ball over twice.

It’s the fourth time in as many victories the Nets have neutralized an opponent’s primary scoring option.

They held Trae Young to 3-of-12 shooting in the victory over the Hawks, limited budding star Jalen Green to a 9-of-21 shooting night in the win against the Rockets, and kept perennial All-Star Jimmy Butler off the foul line and under 20 points in a victory over the Heat that moved the Nets ahead of Miami in the Eastern Conference standings.

And it’s the fourth time in the same stretch the Nets have allowed the opponent’s second option to erupt for a big scoring night, as well.

While Markkanen struggled from the field on Sunday, for example, Talen Horton-Tucker erupted for game-high 32 points on 25 shot attempts. When Young couldn’t buy the Hawks a basket, Atlanta’s No. 2 option, Dejounte Murray, scored a team-high 21 points on Friday. Green only mustered 14 points for the Rockets against the Nets, but No. 2 option Kevin Porter Jr. poured in 31.

And even though the Nets beat the Heat by 29 and held Butler to a low-scoring night, they still gave up 23 points apiece to both Tyler Herro and Max Strus.

“Sometimes we go into a night and Trae Young is not going to get off, or Lauri Markkanen is not going to get off, and we’re hoping that we can use the other guys on the floor,” Vaughn said after the victory over the Jazz on Sunday. “If a secondary guy has a good game, then we have to live with some of the consequences. I just think over the course of the game, there’s some dudes who are built to make shots. Some aren’t.

“We’re hoping that it tries to make those other guys make plays that they aren’t used to making, and then you ask can they make those plays over and over again?” he continued. “Maybe one off they can, but are they built to do that thing over and over again from the first quarter to the fourth quarter?”

The Nets are willing to live and die by an opponent’s second option. It’s not always possible given the dominant nature of some stars’ impact.

For example, Nikola Jokic hung a triple double on the Nets, Domantas Sabonis put up 24 points and 21 rebounds, Donovan Mitchell had back-to-back 31-point games, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander put up 35 points of his own.

Those four stars accounted for five of the Nets’ last six losses. Some stars are going to get theirs no matter what.

“I think ideally we want to try to get the ball out of the hands of guys who are designed to make plays. Usually you want to do a good job on first and second option,” Spencer Dinwiddie said postgame. “[Horton-Tucker’s big scoring night is] really us not doing the second part to be honest.

“I was going to mispronounce foreign names and I don’t want to do it: (Kelly) Olynyk, (Juan) Toscanno-Anderson, Kris Dunn, (Simone) Fontecchio. You want them beating you.”

In the loss to the Nuggets, however, Michael Porter Jr. posted a game-high 28 points and Jamal Murray added 25 of his own. Gilgeous-Alexander’s 35 points hurt more when Josh Giddey puts up a triple double and Lugentz Dort hits six threes.

Dinwiddie said the Nets were lucky to beat the Jazz on Sunday. Just two games prior, Vaughn said Brooklyn was “pretty lucky” to beat a Rockets team with the NBA’s second-worst record.

Vaughn’s defensive strategy is working, but there is still room for improvement. Horton-Tucker nearly willed the Jazz back from down big by himself on Sunday. The Jazz were also missing their true second option — vaunted scorer Jordan Clarkson (dislocated finger) — which means it was their true third option, Horton-Tucker, who erupted for 32 points on Friday.

“We’ve just gotta better defensively on both one and two options because a lot of teams, both their one and two are really good, even that three as well,” Mikal Bridges said postgame. “So we’ve just gotta be better. I think defensively we did a good job on Lauri, but Talen had it going early. We’ve just gotta be mindful that’s it’s not just one person but also everyone else.”

For now, the strategy is working to Brooklyn’s advantage.

With Sunday’s victory, the Nets have moved a full two games ahead of the Heat and hold a firm grip on the Eastern Conference’s sixth seed. Both the Nets and Heat have four games left on the schedule, and both have a date with Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers. Assuming both lose to the championship-contending Sixers, one win for the Nets and one loss for the Heat should lock-in a playoff berth for Brooklyn.

Starting center Nic Claxton said the team is eyeing the standings.

“We know where we are,” he said. “We know every game is extremely important so just taking it game by game.”

The early returns for the Nets’ defensive strategy has been positive. If it holds up the rest of the season, Brooklyn will make the playoffs — where that scheme may need some re-jiggering to handle Embiid and the 76ers, who are all but locked into the third seed.