Brooklyn Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn has been a stickler on holding himself accountable if the Nets do not perform to expectations and Wednesday was more of the same. Although one could argue that the coach can only do so much to help his players perform well, Vaughn still took responsibility for Brooklyn not showing up against the Boston Celtics.
In Wednesday’s 139-96 loss to Boston, the Nets were out of sorts from the opening tip. Boston got out to a great start and combined with Brooklyn’s nightmarish start, Wednesday’s game got out of hand in a hurry. The Celtics led 46-16 at the end of the first quarter and the game got worse from there.
Despite Brooklyn cutting Boston’s lead to 22 points in the second quarter, the Nets were unable to lower the deficit even more thanks to Boston not slowing down at any point. Brooklyn did itself no favors by not running efficiently or defending at an adequate level and Vaughn reacted to the poor effort in his postgame availability:
“Yeah, that (Boston’s first quarter) was the biggest difference in the game. I think they start out eight for eight from three or somewhere around there. So, that barrage of them making shots, and then, we weren’t making shots at the same time. So, not a great start for us. I told the group, I’m disappointed in the fact that I didn’t have them ready to play. 46 to 16, we’ve been a group who has pretty much been focused and ready to play. So, it was a great challenge for us on the road, where they hit first, what was our response? So, give them credit. We talked about making more threes and shooting more threes than them. Neither of those things happened. And, they made some tough shots. And, they got going early. And, that was the difference in the game.”
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Story originally appeared on Nets Wire