BROOKLYN — When it comes to the postseason, Nets’ forward Cam Johnson and guard Seth Curry both believe it’s something you have to experience in order to get it.
Brooklyn will go into its first-round series with the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday with a veteran ladened team, that includes an NBA championship winner and guys that have made it to the NBA Finals and conference finals. This is far from an inexperienced group, but after a week of preparation, the message from both players was that no playoff series is alike and be prepared to battle.
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“I think the one thing you take from playoff series is that the experience piece of it does not cover as much as you think it covers,” Johnson said. “Every possession you have to compete, every game you have to compete. One of the things you learn quick in the playoffs is that every game is its own event. You know, whether you won by 30, 40, or lost by 30, 40, the next game has nothing to do with that. So that’s kind of the biggest things I picked up is that you can’t just think, ‘Oh, I’ve been going here before it’ll take care of itself.’
“You got to compete and stay locked in every second.”
The Nets have seemed like a team on a mission headed into Game 1 at Wells Fargo Center. Brooklyn was afforded a rare chance to fully prepare and get acclimated with one another before the series began, which was something that they didn’t have the opportunity to do last year.
The Nets had to go through the play-in round last season before they were eventually swept by the Boston Celtics. Brooklyn avoided that this time around by clinching the sixth seed in the East and automatically setting them on a course to meet with the 76ers.
Brooklyn’s lack of size poses one of the biggest challenges against seven-foot Joel Embiid. They’ll also have to go into the very unfriendly confines of Wells Fargo Center for the first two games of the series.
The Nets’ two trips to Philly this season occurred in November and January, when they were a much different-looking team. It also means that players like Mikal Bridges and Johnson haven’t really experienced the building the way some of the Nets have.
Curry, of course, came over to the Nets in last year’s blockbuster trade that sent James Harden to Philadelphia and Ben Simmons to Brooklyn.
“You can tell them everything, but you kinda gotta experience it for yourself,” Curry responded when asked if he’d talked to anyone about play at Wells Fargo Center in the postseason. “Playoffs is a completely different game, it’s like a different sport from the regular season. Just On the floor, but off the floor, everything is raised up a notch as well. Focus level gotta be even higher, mistakes are magnified, you gotta enjoy the process. You gotta up everything and be even more aggressive, be even more locked in, you gotta enjoy the pressure.”
When asked if he would feel comfortable playing there, Curry said “I’m always comfortable.”
“I enjoy playing on the road. Hostile environment,” he added.
The Nets will try to set the tone early in Game 1 as they try two steal a pair of wins from the Sixers before the series shifts to Brooklyn Thursday for Game 3. Head coach Jacque Vaughn said on Friday that the team will need to be ready to “take a punch” in the first game.
That will show just how poised the team can be in the tough spots.
“It’s punching and counter-punching, and I think how we react to situations throughout the course of the game. And being too aggressive. Just because we’re the sixth seed doesn’t mean you can’t be the aggressor,” Vaughn said.
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