EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The genesis of this Nets team can be traced to last May. Forty-nine regular-season victories were quickly rendered meaningless by an inglorious first-round playoff elimination.
After the Chicago Bulls, depleted by illness and injury, bullied the Nets in Game 7 at Barclays Center, General Manager Billy King lamented that his team lacked a hard edge, a willingness to hit back when struck. It was not a unique assessment.
Jason Kidd, the new coach, watched every Nets game from last season, and he noted during his introductory news conference that the team’s identity was “just vanilla.”
To those who experienced it, the Nets’ short playoff run left a bad taste that required compelling changes.
“The guys that were here last year that were a part of that loss, that Game 7 loss, still feel that, still remember that,” Deron Williams said. “We don’t want to have that feeling again. We feel like when we made the moves we made this summer, that we had a chance to win the championship, and we still feel like that’s attainable.”
The Nets’ off-season personnel decisions — a trade to get Kevin Garnettand Paul Pierce and free-agent signings like Andrei Kirilenko and Shaun Livingston — were unequivocal responses to that postseason collapse.
The Nets were chasing talent, of course, but on top of that a certain pedigree and attitude. The time has come to put their makeover to the test.
As they approached their playoff opener on Saturday afternoon against the young and talented Toronto Raptors at Air Canada Centre, the Nets were touting their own experience, their maturity and mental fortitude, and their résumés.
“Youthfulness is a funny thing,” Garnett said. “When you’re playing off energy and momentum, adrenaline, when all that wears down or when all that goes out the window, now it’s time for you to start using what you know. And if you’ve never experienced that, then you’re just playing basic basketball. It’s a different level of intensity, a different level of concentration.”
Garnett added: “Some can withstand it for 48 minutes. Some can’t.”
No player in the Raptors’ expected starting lineup — Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan, Terrence Ross, Amir Johnson and Jonas Valanciunas — has started a postseason game. The Nets’ projected starters, on the other hand, will enter the series having accumulated 381 postseason starts.
For a week or more, there will be a compelling dichotomy on the court. The Raptors are saying they can use their speed and young, fresh legs to undo the Nets’ defense. The Nets think they have more experience weathering stressful situations.
“We brought in guys who have won championships, so they know what it’s like to be in this type of situation and doing these battles night in and night out,” Williams said.
The Nets have struggled at times playing the second of back-to-back games. The teams split the season series, 2-2, and both Nets losses were in such situations. Johnson and other Nets players noted that there were no back-to-back games during the postseason, meaning it would be easier to keep legs fresh.
Few teams were as openly dismissive of the 82-game regular-season slog as the Nets. From the preseason, the talk was of a trophy. When they struggled early, they said the first half of the season did not matter. They rested players in bunches over this last week, not worrying about momentum.
As a group, they were conceived for this moment.
“We have had our ups and downs, our trials and tribulations,” Pierce said. “We’re ready.”