NEW YORK - A sense of relief was evident for the Brooklyn Nets on Monday night as they broke an 11-game losing streak with a 109-85 win over the Sacramento Kings.
As the winning players returned to the locker room, their enthusiasm and excitement were felt and heard through the walls inside the Barclays Center.
"It felt amazing," said Nets guard Bruce Brown. "We were in Miami, we had a little team bonding incident and then the vibe just changed. We can all feel it, feel it in the locker room and we know we're going to be here. It was good for us to be around each other, learn more about each other, and it was a big win for us today."
Brown, who had 19 points, 6 rebounds and d6 assists and a solid defense, was given the game ball after the win and noted that there has been a much happier "vibe" in the locker room over the past few days.
"The locker room, there's a great vibe right now," Brown said. "I don't know what it is, everything changed after the trade deadline. Everybody likes everybody, so that's great."
The Nets traded disappointed All-Star James Harden last Thursday to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for the likes of Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, Andre Drummond and two future first-round picks. Brown, who declined to provide more details about the team bonding event in Miami, was asked whether the fact that everyone is getting better now means it was not the case earlier in the season, but they refused.
"Everybody likes everybody," Brown said. "We're a little closer now."
One reason the Nets feel so good is the way Curry and Drummond came into the starting lineup and made an immediate impact. Curry scored 23 points to help make room for the rest of his teammates. After it was over, he said that his mind didn't wander thinking about what it would be like to play alongside Kevin Durant (sprained MCL), Kyrie Irving (unable to play in New York City due to the Covid-19 vaccination mandate). Simmons (reconditioning after being away from the NBA for more than nine months), because he believed it was going to work out with everyone.
"I already knew that," Curry said. "I didn't have to look at what we did tonight to know what kind of style we would play. We'll have a lot of weapons - offensively and defensively. It's going to be a lot of fun to play. It's going to be fun." It's been a while since I went up and down the floor like this. And played with that kind of pace, even on the half court."
Nets coach Steve Nash tried to make Curry comfortable with the Sixers by playing some of the sets he played.
"We ran some of the actions he's used to running," Nash said. “We also put him in a position to be himself. Not to worry about too many things so we want him to just play, feel free, we believe in him as a player and we don’t want That he thinks as much. We want him to be aggressive and be himself, and he was great tonight."
Drummond, who had 11 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists, remains optimistic about the Nets' prospects, despite the fact that they have struggled a lot over the past few weeks.
"We have a great group of people," Drummond said. "The guys who are missing now, we had to wait for them to recover, but once everyone is back I think we will be very, very good and will push very well into the playoffs."
After all the emotions of the past month, Nash was just happy that his team was back on track and he's confident the Nets will start up again soon when they have their full roster back.
"I think they deserved it," Nash said. “They deserved a win after this stretch. Played some really tough teams, body down…they are of the highest character going through a stretch like this and bringing it up every day so they deserved it Huh."