Nets focusing on themselves in lead-up to first-round series with 76ers

BROOKLYN — It hasn’t been too often this season that the Nets have had the chance to stop and smell the proverbial roses. Following the trades of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, the Nets have had to try and build chemistry and adjust to a new nucleus on the fly.

This week though the Nets have a little more time to take a step back and game plan for their first-round opponent, the Philadelphia 76ers. Brooklyn was back on the court Tuesday for their first postseason practice and is in the middle of a rare five-day break without any games to play.

A benefit of avoiding the play-in round this year just to make the playoffs.

“This is all about preparation, making sure that you make fewer mistakes than the other team,” Joe Harris said following practice at HSS Training Center. “The way the week is formatted, tomorrow we’ll have a day off. Today we had a pretty hard practice where you’re keeping everything sharp, your rhythm, for a shooter, getting game reps today was good. I’ll do the same thing Thursday and a little bit lighter Friday. It’ll be a little bit more similar to preparation for a regular game.”

The difference, though, is the Nets won’t have to try and cobble together the game plan on the fly as much as they had during the season. Brooklyn has been through plenty of ups and downs and plenty of lineup changes this year, but none as dramatic as inserting four new starters into the lineup following the deadline.

The Nets managed to keep the ship afloat, anchored by the breakout play of Mikal Bridges, and now they have the chance to really hunker down before opening the best-of-seven series with the Sixers.

“As the whole season went on, we learned on the go,” Royce O’Neale said. “I mean now we got some days to actually get stuff in. Breakdown stuff, and you know, make things easier for ourselves.”

What’s coming up for the Nets isn’t much of a secret in terms of the task they have against the Sixers. The first order of business will be trying to contain a potential league MVP in Joel Embiid, not to mention the plethora of other stars that they have on their roster.

That’s why Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn said that he wasn’t trying to be overly complicated with things going into the first-round matchup.

“I look at keeping things pretty simple with this group, not overcomplicating this thing. Not introducing a bunch of new sets,” Vaughn said. “All of the above. So that was the approach today. Defensively, just rehearsing what we’ve done in the past and making sure we’re clean with that. And offensively, being in our right spots, basic piece of it. Just real simple today, more about us.”

Game 1 is scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m. in Philadelphia and the second time in less than a week that the two sides have seen one another. However, there wasn’t much that either side could take from that final regular season meeting, and with so much turnover on the Nets, it’s hard to use much from the previous meetings between the two clubs either.

“Really didn’t try to take anything away,” Vaughn said. “We didn’t run anything, so really I probably look at that third game more than anything if I’m gonna reflect back on something.”