In a game that ended earlier, the Nets lost 96-106 to the Lakers, suffering a wave of two consecutive losses, and in the last five games, they have lost 3 of them, and if they are not careful, they are likely to fall into the lower half of the East. As of now, the Nets are temporarily in third place in the East with a record of 29 wins and 18 losses, but the fourth place Bucks and their win difference is the same, the fifth Cavaliers are menacing, and the gap with the Nets is only 0.5 wins, given that Durant will be absent for at least a month, Irving can only play away games, and then have to face the Nuggets, Warriors, Suns and other powerful teams of the Nets, the prospects are really not optimistic.
However, for the Nets, they hope that they can fall out of the first half, after all, Irving can only play away games now, if they really run to the top half and have home advantage, then Irving can not play, for them it has become a disadvantage. So far, the Nets have played a total of 24 games at home, with a record of 12 wins and 12 losses, compared with the 23 games on the road, they have achieved a good record of 17 wins and 6 losses, which shows that the Nets seem to be better at playing away games.
In the offseason, the Nets also strengthened the reinforcement action for the substitute lineup when the big three were still in the lineup, signing Aldridge, James Johnson, Bembry, Millsap, Jevon Carter, Mills, plus edwards, Cam Thomas, Sharp and other potential new stars in the draft, the overall lineup depth compared with last season, has indeed improved. The reason why the Nets made a big show of reinforcement was to keep the team strong enough to impact the championship, and as a result, they did not want to make a difference here at Irving. Because of the reluctance to be vaccinated, Irving could have played in the team's away games, but was "one size fits all" by the team, directly banned, home and away games can not play at the same time, even training has been banned.
However, as the season progressed, the Nets did not play the expected state, and the team management also chose to be soft and let Irving return to the team, but due to the local epidemic prevention regulations in New York, he still could not play the team's home game, but he could participate with the team in the away game. So far, Irving has played in 7 games for the Nets, averaging 23.4 points, 4.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game, shooting 50.4%, 36.6% and 100% respectively, and is close to joining the 180 clubs, since the lifting of the ban, Irving has never missed the Nets' away game, and in these 7 games, the Nets have also achieved a 4-3 record, including the game on January 13, when the Big Three combined defeated the Bulls in the East at the time 138-112.
If the Nets are in the upper half of the East (that is, the top four in the East) at the end of the regular season, then they will have home advantage, which is what the team does not want to see, because Irving will not be able to play, although it is only a home difference, but if you really have to encounter a special game like Grabber Seven, Whether Irving can play will have a great impact on the Nets.
If the Nets really want to give up their position in the top half, the next few hard battles, they are likely to deliberately release water and let their ranking continue to fall, but the premise is not to let themselves fall out of the top six, really want to play the play-offs, as far as the current state of the Nets, it is really not necessarily able to retreat.