Nets coach Jacque Vaughn is asking for more from players like Spencer Dinwiddie and the rest of his slumping Nets. AP Photo by Michael Wyke
The last time the Brooklyn Nets saw the Portland Trail Blazers, they had just snapped a season high five-game losing streak and were hoping to build off a homestand-opening win by taking care of business against one of the league’s worst teams.
Instead, they suffered one of their most humbling losses of the campaign to the Blazers and haven’t won since.
“For us not to win this basketball game (is) very disappointing,” Nets coach Jacque Vaughn ceded after Portland erased a 10-point, second-half deficit and outplayed Brooklyn in overtime en route to a 134-127 triumph at Barclays Center on Jan. 7.
The Nets (16-23), who had just beaten Oklahoma City two nights earlier on the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush to open the four-game stand, had to fly to Paris and suffer another loss to Cleveland last Thursday, though the contest counted as a Brooklyn home game.
On Monday, the Nets once again found themselves in overtime after blowing a 14-point halftime lead to Miami.
The Heat got a fortunate foul call at the end of OT and Jimmy Butler drained a pair of free throws to hand Brooklyn a 96-95 defeat.
Losers of 13 of their last 16 games, eight of nine and three in a row, the Nets are desperate to regain the form that saw them climb a season-best three games above .500 on Dec. 13.
Now, Brooklyn is a season-worst seven games below the break-even mark and Vaughn hasn’t been able to right the ship despite his undying encouragement and belief in his unit.
After the loss to Miami in Brooklyn on Monday, he got a touch more stern with a team that has dropped into 10th place in the Eastern Conference race, leaving it in a tie with Atlanta for the final play-in tournament slot.
“We’re just in a position right now where you have to perform, and that’s across the board,” Vaughn said.
“That’s a challenge to the entire…
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