The Nets return to Brooklyn for Game 3 of their Eastern Conference playoff series against the Raptors on Friday brimming with confidence, having gone 22-4 at Barclays Center since the start of 2014.
But after the home teams went 7-9 through the first two games of the eight NBA first-round series, Paul Pierce cautioned against thinking the Nets have this series in the bag after seizing home-court advantage from Toronto.
"As you see, the way these playoffs have been going, a lot of the home teams have been losing," Pierce said following Thursday's practice. "I think everybody in the first round has lost their home court, so we have to be aware of that and we have to know it's not a given just because we're at home we're going to win.
"We have to go out there and bring the passion, bring the execution, give everything we got in order to get these couple wins at the house."
Pierce's math is a bit off, as only Miami among the eight teams to host two playoff games so far has swept them both. Two teams — the Wizards and Trail Blazers — won both of their games on the road, something the Nets had a chance to do in the fourth quarter of Game 2 Tuesday before allowing it to slip away in the final minutes.
Now, the Nets return home to what they hope will be a raucous crowd for Game 3 on Friday and Game 4 on Sunday — a crowd they hope will have a little extra juice after Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri, who will be in attendance, famously said, "F— Brooklyn" at the end of his address to a crowd of several thousand fans outside Air Canada Centre before Game 1.
"Very eager," said Kevin Garnett of his feelings ahead of his first home playoff game as a Net. "Very eager to see how they respond to the 'F' Brooklyn, very eager to see how they respond to this kid [Ujiri] sitting in our arena.
"I don't know how that's going to be. We'll see."
Besides seeing how the home crowd will react to Ujiri and the Raptors, the Nets also will be anxious to see how their shots fall. The Nets have been on fire at home since switching to their small-ball lineup on Jan. 1, shooting 49 percent from the field and 39 percent from 3-point range, both of which rank in the top five in the league.
The Nets got plenty of wide-open looks in the first two games, particularly from behind the 3-point arc, but they only managed to shoot 11-for-48 from deep — something they think will change once they get back onto their home floor.
"I don't think we necessarily shot too many [3s]," Deron Williams said. "I think we had open looks, and we just have to knock them down. They are shots we're accustomed to making and we didn't do it. So we just have to stay confident and keep doing what we're doing.
"We're moving the ball well and getting open looks … we just have to knock them down."
Either way, the Nets are counting on things remaining as close as they were during the first two games, when the Nets outscored the Raptors by a combined two points. After the two teams split the season series, with three games decided by a total of seven points and a fourth close until the fourth quarter, there's no reason to think that will change anytime soon.
"These are two teams that are fighting to win a game and try to find a way to win a series," coach Jason Kidd said. "You have two teams that are very similar, and if you've seen the six games, they've all come down to like one or two possessions and so we don't see that changing."
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