Coach Steve Nash says he's focused on the Brooklyn Nets' reality, not where they'd be had Kyrie Irving gotten vaccinated

play

Steve Nash, the coach of the Brooklyn Nets, said he is not thinking about what might have been had Nets guard Kyrie Irving been vaccined against COVID-19 before the season.

Nash said that that is not realistic. It is not a worthy exercise. We deal with what is in front of us. We deal with reality. Our reality is the one we are facing and if you don't face that reality with honesty and presence you will not get anywhere.

The Nets have failed to develop continuity in their series against the Celtics and will have to win Game 4 on Monday if they want to avoid elimination.

The Nets find themselves in this situation because of Irving's decision not to get the vaccine, but the storyline that has hovered over everything the organization has done since is the fact that Irving made it clear that he wouldn't get the vaccine.

After Game 3, Irving noted that he would have liked for the Nets to have had more time to jell.

Irving said that they were all trying to jell. The other locker room is jelling at the right time. They have been jelling since Christmas. We are just in a new experience as a group and we need to respect that and just do one possession at a time.

I don't want to be too clich, but I don't have a lot of answers from how you make up time from October until now when teams are usually jelling and things are feeling good. You could put it on me to play better, control the game better, not turn the ball over as much, and be more in a stance, so I could do more. I am held accountable the same way the guys are.

Irving said he felt he made the best decision for himself by not getting the vaccine, but it cost him an early part of the Nets season. The Nets did not want to have Irving as a part-time player to start the year, but changed their minds in December after a teamwide COVID-19 outbreak. Irving was able to play in road games after he came back in a win over the Pacers. Irving's in-and-out status was felt more acutely when Kevin Durant injured his left knee.

I think we've faced all these things this year and we have put ourselves in this position, which is a big win considering the team could have imploded when Kevin was out. We stuck together. We were able to stay in this thing even though we lost 18-of-21 or more.

That was a big win for this group and it put us in this position. It is important for us to keep a perspective that it is not as bad as it looks, because we are in this position and we are getting our heads kicked in. We were very unfortunate to have not won a game. We have a lot to play for.

Harden was traded just before the February deadline to the Philadelphia 76ers, in a deal that brought Ben Simmons,Seth Curry, and two future first-round picks to Brooklyn. At his first news conference as a Sixer, Harden noted that Irving's decision not to get the vaccine factored into his decision.

The NBA playoffs began Saturday and run through June, when the league will crown a champion for its milestone season.

Day 2 had the biggestTakeaways from Day 1

• NBA world goes wild over Celtics-Nets

• What to know about all 16 playoff teams

• Playoff predictions: Picks for every series

• Phoenix is better than you think