Robbed of Joe Harris’ shooting and gravity, the Nets’ offense looked horrid in getting blown out Tuesday by Golden State.
With Steve Nash saying the sharpshooter is liable to miss a couple more games, that doesn’t bode well.
“That certainly didn’t help us, you know? We had some lineups out there with not a lot of shooting, where they couldn’t really go to their box-and-one, triangle-and-two, and zone up on our best players,” coach Steve Nash said after the Nets’ 117-99 loss to the Warriors. “So we weren’t allowed to do as many things to combat that without Joe.”
Harris was forced out of Sunday’s win in Oklahoma City with a sprained left ankle. Nash wouldn’t reveal what grade the sprain was, but said, “He’s going to probably miss a few games, and then we’ll have it re-imaged and see where he’s at.”
The Nets play host to Cleveland on Wednesday in the tail end of a back-to-back, then the Magic on Friday before embarking on another road trip.
Harris has shot 25 of 42 from 3 in his last eight games. He had played every game this season before Tuesday.
Sixth-man Patty Mills got his first start of the season in Harris’ absence, notching eight points and four assists. But his punch off the bench was sorely missed.
LaMarcus Aldridge has been the Nets’ third-leading scorer and top offensive reserve, but went conspicuously unused in the first half. The center didn’t appear until 6:32 left in the third, at which point the Nets had dug a 78-65 hole.
“He was going to go in. They went small so we went small,” Nash said. “Then we were going to put him in and he didn’t feel warm. He’d been sitting over there a while so he said we’d rather save it for the second half.”
Nash ended up giving Aldridge just 9:28 on Tuesday.
After favoring his right shoulder for the past few games, Kevin Durant said it had nothing to do with him shooting 6 of 19, including going 0-for-8 in the third.
“[It’s] cool. It didn’t hinder me at all,” Durant said.
“I didn’t see him bothered by his shoulder at all,” Nash added.
Kyrie Irving remains unvaccinated and out, told to stay home until he’s fully available to play. When asked to shed light on what Irving has been doing, or workouts he’s been taking part in, Nash said their conversations haven’t touched on those topics.
“I stay in touch with Kyrie, but we don’t really talk about basketball,” Nash said. “Just say in touch and make sure everything is good with him.”
Big men Nic Claxton (non-COVID illness) and Paul Millsap (personal reasons) were both still out, and Nash had no update or timeline on Millsap. But Day’Ron Sharpe returned from his personal issue and had four points and seven boards in 9:04.