The Brooklyn Nets are projected to have to go through the gauntlet of the NBA Play-In tournament in the Eastern Conference, according to a post by Bleacher Report on Monday. This article comes after the Nets handily beat the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday, 102-86.
Brooklyn is a team that’s hard to figure out for many reasons. One, they have a lot of talent, but have found themselves winning just three of their last nine games despite having a team that’s probably more balanced now than it was with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving on the roster. Second, the Nets have had crushing defeats against the New York Knicks and the Chicago Bulls, which were teams thought to be on their level.
As it stands, Brooklyn is holding on to the last spot to make the playoffs outright as the sixth seed. However, if they drop down the standings any further, they will have to find their way through the arduous Play-In tournament before getting to the playoffs. Brooklyn currently has a 2.5 game lead over the Miami Heat for the sixth spot, but there are still 18 games to go. Here’s what B/R had to say about the Nets being projected for the Play-In:
“There’s a lot of talent still left on this roster after Sean Marks blew up the roster at the trade deadline, and Brooklyn did shock the league with an NBA-high 28-point comeback in Boston to beat the Celtics just last week.
So why the demotion here?
Since the deadline, Brooklyn possesses the fifth-worst net rating in the NBA (minus-6.5), even worse than the tanking Detroit Pistons, who are just 1-7 over this stretch.
This will be one of the most interesting teams to monitor in the offseason with a real building block in Mikal Bridges. For now, however, the Nets will fall out of the top-six seeds and into the play-in tournament.”
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Story originally appeared on Nets Wire