Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett: The "glue of this team"

The Brooklyn Nets have made quite the turnaround since January and are slowly rising in the Eastern Conference standings. A lot of the success has been due to increased chemistry and comfort level amongst the newcomers, especially Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. Both started the season poorly but have since played through their slump.

“They’re the glue of this team,” Nets coach Jason Kidd said of Pierce and Garnett. “When you look at their careers, they’ve been through a lot -- slow starts, fast starts, there’s never any panic you can see in their play. Sometimes veteran guys take a little bit longer to get to the starting line, but the guys are playing at a high level and you can see that with Paul and KG.”

via Mike Mazzeo of ESPN

This ability to remain calm and take things one step at a time is a crucial intangible that the Nets were hoping to get when they acquired these two players. With so much experience already under their belt, in both the regular season and the playoffs, they were hoping that this would rub off on the other players and push this team through adversity. For now, it's starting to show.

“I think we’ve developed some chemistry since the new year,” said Pierce. “You can tell by the way we move the ball, the way we’re defending. Everybody seems to be on the same page. And when you have that type of chemistry with that type of talent, we’re gonna be a tough team to beat when we put it together.”

In the past five games, Garnett and Pierce have become extremely efficient, shoooting 64.9% and 57.1% respectively. In the Nets last match-up against the Charlotte Bobcats, Pierce dropped 25 points, 14 of which came in the third quarter.

Both have been doing this while playing low minutes. Pierce is playing just 22.8 minutes a game to Garnett's 19.3, who has also missed a couple of games recently.

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