Nets grit mentality has them off to surprising start this season

During the Big 3 era, and even last year, when the Nets won, it was more on talent than toughness. It’s early, but so far this season, it’s the other way around.And that toughness has led to a surprising 4-4 start for the Nets going into Friday’s game at Boston. “There’s a grit, you know?” Cam Johnson said.

“Two of our wins have come on the second night of a back-to-back, which I don’t think we had great success with in the past.We’re not winning games because we’re playing pretty basketball or because we’re making shots and things are going our way.

We’re finding ways to win and finding ways to be tough and figured that part of the game out. “We’ve had a lot of games, we’ve given up a lot of free throws, we’ve had games where we’ve been a little undersized.But there’s a toughness component to it that’s pretty foundational, and taking this little eight-game sample and establishing identity for 82.” It’s something they figured out all too infrequently during the Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving era, or with the Mikal Bridges-led squad last season.

Brooklyn grit was an empty slogan, not a reality.They let go of the rope far too often late in games, blowing fourth-quarter leads and showing a lack of fortitude. “I wouldn’t say as a team we weren’t tough enough.

I’ll probably say we just didn’t show it,” admitted Johnson.“We didn’t respond in the best ways at times and it just boiled down to the foundation of what we were doing.

A lot of the emphasis through camp was strictly on that foundation and how we’re going to play night in and night out and what we’re going to hang our hat on.That’s what leads to sustainability and that’s what leads to the toughness we’ve shown on the court. “That toughness aspect and how we’re trying to play is sustainable.

And I don’t think we’re subject to the ebbs and flows of the games as much.” The devil is in the details. Nothing screams grit more than...