Drummond: Nets need to play like ‘pickup’ in the final stretch
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With the 2021-22 NBA’s Regular Season drawing to a close, Brooklyn Nets centre Andre Drummond has suggested that his team needs to adopt a more casual ‘pickup’ mentality as they look to secure a place in the Playoffs.
The Nets have been shuffling their lineup through the course of the season – including having to deal with the unvaccinated Kyrie Irving’s availability – as well as an MCL injury for star forward Kevin Durant that kept him out for more than a month and a half and a trade-deadline deal with the Philadelphia 76ers that brought in Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, Drummond and two future first-round picks in exchange for All-Star guard James Harden and Paul Millsap.
“Got to treat this s*** like pickup,” Drummond said. “Just take the best five and try to make it work. And try to build chemistry while we’re out there. But I think the best thing about our team is we have guys that are experienced, guys that have been in the league for five- to seven-plus years. So I think with that, we’ll be able to figure it out.”
Brooklyn coach Steve Nash is not in full agreement with Drummond, but understands the spirit of his approach. “I wouldn’t go that far,” Nash said about Drummond’s comment. “Hopefully we are more purposeful than just a pickup game. But I get what he’s saying. And I’ve talked to the team about this. We don’t have time to give away days… We’ve talked to the group a lot about [the final Regular Season] games.”
Nash acknowledged that they are playing against teams that have the benefit of being together a lot longer than the Nets.
“We’re playing against teams with four or five, six years of corporate knowledge,” Nash explained. “A lot of that end-of-game execution stuff is rote for them. They’ve been through it before. We don’t have that. So I think that’s what Andre’s getting at is we got to really work hard and be conscientious of what are the little details that are going to help us win games.”
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Catch the following NBA Regular Season games live this week on ESPN…
All times CAT
Saturday 9 April
03:30: Utah Jazz v Phoenix Suns – LIVE on ESPN 2
Sunday 10 April
22:30: Phoenix Suns v Sacramento Kings – LIVE on ESPN 2