SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Nets — rebuilding and stuck squarely in the lottery positions — shouldn’t need a wake-up call.
But Friday’s loss to the struggling Sixers should serve as one, just in case.
“Yeah. It don’t get no easier,” admitted red-hot wing Cam Johnson, alluding to the rest of this four-game road trip. “But it shouldn’t have to be a wake-up call.
“It’s the NBA. We know who we’re playing against. We know what Sacramento brings. We know what Golden State brings. We know what Phoenix brings — and it’s really good, high-level players. So, yeah, we do. It is a bit of a wake-up call. But we understand what we’re getting ourselves into.”
Sunday marks more than just a return to Sacramento for head coach Jordi Fernandez and assistants Dutch Gaitley and Deividas Dulkys, all former Kings staffers.
It will be the start of a grueling Western Conference gauntlet that the Nets are going to have to run. Or at least try to survive.
“Yeah, it’s a good test for us. We have a few good teams in the west coming up, so really we can measure ourselves, see where we’re at,” Cam Thomas said. “We want to play the best and I’m sure we’ll be ready for it.”
The measurement won’t be easy.
After dealing with star guard De’Aaron Fox (28.8 points) and center Domantas Sabonis (20.4 points, 12.7 rebounds and 6.4 assists), the Nets will follow with the tail end of a tough back-to-back the next night at Golden State.
The Warriors came into the weekend leading the Western Conference at 12-3 behind superstar Stephen Curry (22.7 points). And they finish the trip in Phoenix against old friend Kevin Durant.
The former MVP has been sidelined and the Suns have dropped five straight. But they’re 8-1 with Durant and he’s expected back Tuesday — meaning naturally he could be fit to face his former Nets team.
Tough test indeed.
“Yeah, we’ve got some good teams coming up, backcourts and some good teams,” center Nic Claxton said. “So we know we have to be better. And if we don’t lock in, we’re going to get beat by more than what we got beat by [Friday].”
Part of locking in will be playing a cleaner game than they did in Friday’s start to this trip, when they essentially gave away a 113-98 loss in Philadelphia.
After having dropped five of six, they rallied from 17 down to beat the Charlotte Hornets.
But facing a shorthanded 76ers team that was playing without All-Stars Joel Embiid and Paul George, the Nets failed to build on that momentum.
The Nets committed 19 giveaways in Philadelphia, and got outscored 28-12 off turnovers — including 6-0 in a fourth-quarter collapse.
“Too many turnovers … unforced turnovers,” Thomas said. “We need to play more cleaner and get ready for Sacramento.”
Thomas himself struggled, shooting just 6 of 15 from the floor, forcing several ill-advised shots and committing an unsightly seven turnovers by himself. The other half of the backcourt, Dennis Schroder, had seven as well.
“Obviously, the number is not good,” Fernandez said. “His seven assists is a number that I like a lot, but not seven turnovers. So probably he had four too many. Seven [assists] and three [turnovers] would be great or will be good.
“And again, you see CT and Dennis with 13 [turnovers] combined, it’s not a good sign. And again, credit to [the Sixers] — because that’s what they do — but when we prepare for games, we tell the guys about what they’re gonna face and see. We didn’t execute very well.”
