But Brooklyn won back-to-back games over 10th-place Atlanta last week to keep in touch with the final spot in the Eastern Conference’s play-in tournament.
It also rebounded nicely from Monday’s home loss to Memphis by holding off the Philadelphia 76ers, 112-107, on Tuesday.
The Nets (25-37) will enter Motown 3 1/2 lengths behind the Hawks in their quest to reach the postseason for the sixth consecutive year.
Owners of a dismal 9-19 road mark, the Nets went 1-4 on their last exit from Brooklyn, opening the trip with a 50-point loss in Boston that proved to be Vaughn’s swan song.
After visiting the Pistons (9-52), who have the second-worst record in the East, Brooklyn will also go to Charlotte and Cleveland for back-to-backs over the weekend before heading to Orlando and Indiana next week.
The extended getaway, which coincides with college basketball invading Barclays Center during conference tournament season, ends in Austin, Texas on March 17, when the Nets will “host” the San Antonio Spurs in a neutral site affair at the Moody Center.
They’ll be back in Brooklyn on March 19 to host New Orleans before going to Milwaukee two nights later to start a four-game trip.
Ollie knows that with 20 regular-season contests remaining, the Nets have to display the requisite desire to remain relevant in the playoff hunt away from the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush.
“We’re chasing the people in front of us,” he said following Tuesday’s win over the Sixers. “So we have to have that hunger.”
Power forward Dorian Finney-Smith looked famished against Philadelphia, scoring 12 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter, grabbing eight rebounds, delivering several key tip-ins and draining a quartet of 3-pointers.
“He does the dirty work,” reserve guard Lonnie Walker IV said of Finney-Smith.
“You need a player like that on almost every team in the league, so I think his addition, what he brings to the court in all aspects of the game is truly…
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