James Harden scored just four points as the Brooklyn Nets lost their sixth game in a row, going down to defeat on Wednesday night against the Sacramento Kings; "I think we've done too much talking. We've got to go out there and do it, and do it consistently," said Harden
Thursday 3 February 2022 10:51, UK
The Brooklyn Nets were built to be a superteam.
There is no more emphatic 'Big Three' in the league than the trio of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden.
Even with the complications caused by Irving's vaccination views (his refusal to take the Covid-19 vaccine means he cannot play in home games for the Nets), it is a triumvirate that should be more than capable of contending for a title and delivering one.
Durant is sidelined right now, alongside fellow All-Star LaMarcus Aldridge, but the team still has yet another All-Star they can plug into the line-up in Blake Griffin as well as solid role players like Patty Mills, Nic Claxton and James Johnson.
All things considered this is not a group which should be lurching into six-game skids and losing to teams like the Sacramento Kings.
But that is exactly what happened on Wednesday night as the Nets went down 112-101 and Harden cut a frustrated figure afterwards.
Harden, who has been nursing a sore right hand and a hamstring injury, was held to just four points.
He insisted those injuries were not a massive factor in his performance, but when asked what was up with the team, he said: "A little bit of everything. We're on a six-game losing streak.
"I think we've done too much talking. We've got to go out there and do it, and do it consistently.
"It's definitely frustrating, it's definitely difficult, but we have to find a way to get out of it as a group. Keep chipping away, day at a time, that's all you can do. Come together, even closer, even tighter.
"We have times where we're great and we have times where we're really bad. We have to find some consistency throughout the course of games, more times than not.
"We have got a lot of different things internally and we've not had any continuity yet, but there's nothing else to do but keep going, keep pushing forward."
One of the starkest takeaways from Wednesday night's defeat was that Harden and Irving combined for 74 minutes against the Kings – and in that time the pair made just seven made field goals and 10 turnovers.
Is the former league MVP becoming concerned by his team's inability to break out of their current slump?
"There's no concern," said Harden. "We have different line-ups, we have guys in those line-ups with injuries and the like.
"There is no concern we don't have our entire team when this is happening to us. We are just trying to figure out what works best. Which guys fit, which guys don't. It's all a process.
"We're going through a tough stretch where we're losing. Obviously, it'd be great if we could win some of these games. While going through that process though, we're not.
"That being said, we've got to keep finding ways [to win], with the guys in our other line-ups and then, hopefully, we can just finish this into the [All-Star] break.
"Then after the break, hopefully we can get our full roster and start making strides in the right direction."
