The Nets ended the 2020–21 regular season with the most efficient offense in NBA history, an achievement that included a higher true shooting percentage (61%) than the 2017–18 Warriors, the previous record holder.
Those Warriors nearly lost in the Western Conference finals to James Harden’s Rockets, a group with its own high-powered offense and a switch-everything defensive scheme designed to slow down Golden State’s flurry of on- and off-ball screens. The Rockets didn’t win, but they knew how they might be able to. When it comes to slowing down these Nets, every other playoff team does not have the same luxury.