Brooklyn Nets center Nic Claxton is one of the longest-tenured players on the Nets and he has seen several different iterations of this roster during his time on the team. This season, Brooklyn had a rough start as the organization was trying to balance its ability to win with the development of the young players, but it seems like the team is hitting its stride.
“I think our principles are the same, no matter who we’re playing against. We can be playing against the best team in the league or the worst team in the league,” Claxton said after Tuesday’s 114-106 win on the road over the Philadelphia 76ers. Claxton finished the contest with 16 points, 10 rebounds, and two assists while shooting 6-of-7 from the field and 4-of-6 from the free-throw line.
“We do every single night: make it tough for teams to score. We’ve been doing that at a high level,” Claxton continued. “It doesn’t matter who we’re playing against. Obviously, some matchups may be different, may be tougher, but we’re gonna do what we do at the end of the day. I think it all starts with the defensive side of the ball.”
As Claxton alluded to in his postgame interview, the Nets have been playing their best basketball of the season over their past 16 games thanks to their massive improvement on the defensive end of the ball. In Brooklyn’s first 10 games of the season, they allowed their opponents to score an average of 125.5 points per game, putting them on pace to be one of the worst defensive teams in NBA history.
However, over their last nine games, the Nets have allowed an average of 102.7 points per game, making them the best defensive team in the league during the month of December. While the Nets are still 9-19 and destined to be one of the teams that miss the postseason entirely, this recent stretch is proof that head coach Jordi Fernandez has been able to get Claxton and the rest of the players to buy into playing elite defense and letting the rest take care of itself.