NEW YORK — It took until the penultimate game of the season to be official, but the Nets went into the weekend with a firm spot in the postseason.
The Nets went into Friday needing either a win or a loss by the Miami Heat to secure the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference, and they ended up getting both. They beat the Magic 101-84 shortly after the Heat lost to the Wizards to secure their fifth consecutive postseason berth. Ironically, the Nets will host the Philadelphia 76ers in the regular-season finale Sunday. Safe to say there won’t be much to take from it.
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“I don’t think either team is going to put any new plays that they’ll use in a series in, for sure,” Jacque Vaughn said after the game. “We’ll be pretty bland, but we do what we do.”
Sunday’s game aside, the Nets’ playoff position isn’t anything to sneeze at. After getting traded to the Mavericks, Kyrie Irving boasted that he “left the Nets in fourth place. I did what I was supposed to do.” Since losing him and Kevin Durant at the trade deadline, the fact the Nets were able to avoid the Play-In despite having most of their new core for just 26 games is impressive. A drop-off was always expected. A free fall was avoided. Meanwhile, Irving found himself sitting out the Mavericks’ game Friday against the Bulls as his new team decided to punt on pushing for a Play-In spot.
Multiple Nets said expectations in the post-Irving-Durant era weren’t much of a conversation in the weeks after their departure. There was no locker room celebration, though Spencer Dinwiddie mused he might open a bottle of red wine Friday night. The Nets’ first postseason berth of their current streak came in 2018-19, coincidentally the sixth seed against the Sixers. That team, which included current Nets Dinwiddie and Joe Harris, was full of unestablished players, some on their last chance in the league. This year, the Nets are a collection of veterans who have been there before.
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“It was always the plan,” Dinwiddie said. “We never spoke about losing or anything like that. Prior to last week or so, it was a goal. Then it became an expectation as we got down to the last four or five games, especially beating the Heat and the Hawks. It became like now we can handle business. We put ourselves in position. Let’s be grown-ups about it.”
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A matchup against the Sixers loses some steam with Ben Simmons out for the season, but there are still a few storylines for a rematch from 2019. Seth Curry faces off against his father-in-law, Sixers coach Doc Rivers. James Harden faces the team he left a year ago in what might be his best chance for a deep playoff run since doing so. And Mikal Bridges faces his hometown team that infamously traded him on draft night. His mother, Tyneeha Rivers, worked for the Sixers organization and later quit in light of it.
If Bridges is itching at the chance to play against the team that dealt him, he isn’t showing it. On Friday, he scored a team-high 22 points in the win against the Magic but downplayed the notion of facing the team he grew up rooting for.
“It’s just the playoffs,” Bridges said. “It’s time to lock in and take it up another notch no matter who it is. Obviously, I’m back home, I play in that gym a lot. But no, there’s just — I mean, I’ll have the same energy, same aggressiveness no matter what team we play. So, not really. I’m just kind of going back home, so a lot of friends and family will be able to make it easier for them.”
Postseason expectations for the Nets are tough to measure given the year it’s been, in addition to recent history. A year ago, they were swept by the Celtics in a first-round series that featured four competitive games. Two years ago, they were inches away from the conference finals as Durant’s famous shot against the Bucks came with his foot on the line. The Nets lack the star power that the Sixers have, but to Dinwiddie’s point, they’re not the team that fell in five games to them in 2019.
They’re more mature, they aren’t just happy to be there and they have a group of players who aren’t fazed by the postseason. Eight of the Nets’ top 10 rotation players have extensive playoff experience, and that doesn’t even account for Patty Mills, the lone player on the roster with an NBA title. He’s at the end of the bench but a big voice in their locker room.
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“That was a young team trying to find their way,” Dinwiddie said while comparing the 2019 and 2023 teams. “We have a lot of guys who understand who we are in the NBA already. We’re trying to find our way as a unit. That one was more so we had a lot of guys trying to find their way as individuals in the league. Now we had great vibes, a bunch of great character guys. It wasn’t selfishness, but we still just kinda were wide-eyed and didn’t necessarily know. You got guys on this team who went to the Finals, conference finals, things of that nature, have experience and have an appropriate respect for Philly, obviously, but there’s no like fear or anything.”
The Nets could be facing the league MVP should the vote swing Joel Embiid’s way, and this year, unlike the past two playoff runs, will be without Durant and Irving, meaning the Nets will likely never have the best player on the floor. Dinwiddie, who just turned 30, has spoken of how the absence of stars likely makes the Nets the underdog in tight games and with calls that could shift the momentum. Just because the Nets lack that, doesn’t mean it’s something they can’t acquire.
And with lighter expectations comes the easier ability to surpass them.
“I’m not going to lie to you, reputation does matter,” Dinwiddie said. “But at the same time, reputations are typically made in the playoffs, right? So you know if Mikal keeps playing at the level he is, he’ll be considered a star at the end of this thing, especially if we can advance or do anything special. I think we have a guy who has the ability to play at that level.
“And you know, you got one damn good-looking point guard, too.”
(Photo of Spencer Dinwiddie driving to the basket against the Magic: Brad Penner / USA Today)
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