Former New York Jets coach Herm Edwards' famous "You play to win the game!" rant apparently fell on deaf ears as far as Brooklyn Nets coach Jason Kidd is concerned.
The Nets created a new catchphrase, "playoff tanking," by losing their last two games of the regular season, culminating with a 114-85 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night.
The setbacks pushed the Nets down to the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference, where they will face the Atlantic Division champion and No. 3 seed Toronto Raptors, rather than the No. 4 seed Chicago Bulls.
ESPN's Brian Windhorst was the first to mention the possibility of the Nets looking to play the upstart Raptors instead of the battle-tested Bulls and coach Tom Thibodeau, who is considered one of the best coaches in the league.
Heat shut down to get No. 2 seed & now Nets putting No. 6 in play by maybe sitting 6 rotation players. Talk about respect for the Raptors
— Brian Windhorst (@WindhorstESPN) April 15, 2014
And if the Nets get past the Raptors, they would then face the two-time defending NBA champion Miami Heat, with whom they swept the season series 4-0.
First-year Nets coach Jason Kidd is not considered one of the best coaches in the league, but he does deserve credit for righting the Brooklyn ship after a miserable start in which he appeared to be in over his head with fake cup spills and banishments of top assistant coaches.
"I like right where we are," Kidd said, according to ESPN.com. "A good place. We've been playing some pretty good basketball of late. We've rested and guys have gotten their work in at the same time of healing some of the injuries they've had -- some nicks and bruises healed. Now it's time to figure out a way to win a game on the road."
According to ESPN, Kidd bristled at the notion that the Nets were tanking to avoid playing the Bulls, who defeated Brooklyn in the first round of the playoffs last season.
The Nets were 10-21 at the end of 2013 and then went 34-17 the rest of the way, but lost four of their last five heading into the postseason.
"It's the playoffs," Kidd said. "It's a new season. Everybody's zero and zero. It's the first one to four."
Do you think Nets coach Jason Kidd's argument that he wasn't tanking but rather resting his players for the playoffs is legitimate? Comment below or tell us @ SportsWN.
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