Brooklyn Nets respond to Jason Kidd's defensive challege

The Brooklyn Nets are not exactly the epitome of defense, nor are they generally seen as a fierce, competitive squad for the most part. But something got them riled up for last night's win against the Chicago Bulls, and that was a subtle challenge and call-out by coach Jason Kidd.

According to Mike Mazzeo of ESPN, Deron Williams stated that Kidd had "kind of challenged" the Nets frontcourt when he pointed out the team's lackadaisical "D" without big man Kevin Garnett.

“I think those guys have taken that to heart and have wanted to prove him and wrong and they’re coming out and playing great and inspired defense,” Williams said.

As a result, Kidd did his part and praised Andray Blatche and the others for an excellent defensive display against the Chicago Bulls.

“I thought Dray (Andray Blatche) was great last night, fighting in the post, (having) active hands,” Kidd said. “Mason starting the game, but I thought our bigs did a wonderful job of competing and also being able to help the smalls, and so I thought it was a great effort by our bigs.”

“I thought for 48 minutes, I thought maybe they were the most consistent defensively,” he said. “Being active, helping one another. Again, I asked those guys how many backdoors and they all knew the answer, so that just shows that they’re in-tuned in executing the gameplan.”

Whether the Nets can keep this up collectively moving forward remains to be seen, but hopefully this is a sign of good things to come. The Nets currently sit exactly at .500, finally, and currently sixth in the Eastern Conference standings and 3.5 games behind the division leading and third place Toronto Raptors.

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