THE BROOKLYN NETS needed to refocus.
The East juggernaut trailed the Philadelphia 76ers by 12 points in a game that helped shape the top of the conference standings. But Kyrie Irving, who had scored 37 points as the only member of the Nets' trio of stars to play, was on the bench after checking out with most of the fourth quarter to unfold.
Kevin Durant remained sidelined with a hamstring injury. James Harden, too. Blake Griffin and the now-retired LaMarcus Aldridge, two of the league's most notable buyout acquisitions this season, were inactive.
On that night, April 14, the Nets' closing lineup consisted of Bruce Brown, Landry Shamet, Nicolas Claxton, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and Alize Johnson. Down big, Johnson beckoned his teammates.
"We've done this before," he told them. "Millions of times.
"But in practice."
Practices were the game reps for Brooklyn's "stay ready" group -- a collection of mostly end-of-the-rotation and bench players who need to keep their game sharp in the event they get called upon in a moment's notice.
Install a new out-of-bounds set? Stay ready. Work through a late-game scenario? Stay ready. Be aware of Brooklyn's ever-fluid active roster? Stay ready. It has evolved into a subculture within the Nets -- and boy, have they needed it.
"They're just going out there and doing it," Irving said. "And now we are asking them to do it a little bit more often."
Brooklyn has started a franchise-record 32 different lineups this season, making the group's membership nebulous and ever-changing. The idea of added pickup games and workouts for fringe players isn't new. In Chicago, the Bulls call them the "low-minute run." In Milwaukee, the Bucks have "the play group." It's the "extra-work group" in Detroit.
Perhaps none has had more star appearances than Brooklyn's.
For months Durant was part of the group as he worked his way back from his torn Achilles. Irving has played in it. Blake Griffin used it to get back into game shape after his month-long hiatus. Claxton, a second-year forward, was a card-carrying member before earning a spot in the Nets' rotation. Brown, a third-year wing who has started 32 games for the Nets this season, began the year in it.
"You got to look at who's in the stay-ready group," Irving said. "It's not your average stay-ready group."
IF THERE HAS been one consistency throughout this NBA season, it has been the incredible lack thereof in Brooklyn.
Durant has missed 35 games this season, Irving has missed 16 games and Harden 12. Nets head coach Steve Nash has tried to avoid playing Griffin -- who has dealt with a knee injury -- in back-to-back games. Aldridge, who played just five games with Brooklyn, experienced an irregular heartbeat and retired unexpectedly earlier this month.
The Nets' Big Three has played a grand total of 186 minutes together, which makes this stay-ready group as vital as any in basketball. With absences excused and unexcused and a relentless spate of injuries, this crew is less a vanity project for Nash and his assistants than a load-bearing beam keeping the Nets within striking distance of the conference lead.
"We don't have a lot of bodies," said Nash, who drops into the stay-ready workouts weekly. "And without the G League and all of that in its normal form, it's pretty limiting in what we can do. I just think it's been a really good tool."
Said Griffin, who suited up with the Nets' stay-ready group for one week in March: "Nothing replaces actual live reps, [but] it's nice to have that as sort of the backup to prepare."
"They told me that my time was going to come, they just don't know when it was going to come. So, before every game I would be like, maybe it's tonight, maybe it's not, but I have to be ready when my name is called."Nets forward Bruce Brown
The stay-ready group gathers well before the rest of the team arrives for practice. If the team is scheduled to meet at 11 a.m., the players show up at 8:30 or 9 for treatment before they congregate on the practice court at 10. Some days, the group plays 5-on-5, other days, it's 3-on-3 or half court.
"It's not really optional," Claxton said of the stay-ready games. "It's something that you need to do. You could say, 'No, I'm not doing this.' But that's not a smart move. If you start pouting, you're not going to get a lot out of it."
For the Nets' stay-ready players -- the guys who might play for two minutes at the end of a blowout or those who don't see any game time at all -- this hour is their main event.
Especially when one of the rehabbing Nets superstars makes an appearance.
THE FIRST TIME Claxton remembers Durant joining was on Feb. 29, 2020 -- before the group even officially got its nickname -- during a road trip in Miami while on the tail end of his Achilles rehab. While the rest of the team was going through pregame treatment and getting set for routine naps before the 7:30 p.m. tip, Claxton was lacing up his shoes in American Airlines Arena for the only game he'd play that day: the stay-ready game.
Durant was on the other side. Claxton had never shared the court -- as teammate or opponent -- with the two-time Finals MVP.
"It was just a different intensity," Claxton recalled. "It was surreal, just seeing him -- you can't make him miss. You really can just pray that he misses."
Claxton has lost count of the number of times Durant had, in those early days, pulled up over him or caused him to lose his defensive footing. He remembers one game when the team was in Los Angeles, Durant drove by the young center and dunked on him. But slowly, Claxton began to move more quickly. His hands grew more active and agile.
Now, Claxton has a spot in the Nets' rotation. He earned his first career start on April 13 and owns the best defensive rating on the team of anyone who plays at least 15 minutes per game.
Claxton owns the fourth-highest plus-minus on the team behind Joe Harris, Irving and Durant, and no Nets player has held opponents to a lower field goal percentage this year -- a defensive skill he honed guarding Durant for months in games that fans never saw.
When Johnson joined the team on a 10-day contract in March, Durant was playing in the stay-ready group as a part of his hamstring rehab. Johnson was immediately assigned to guard him. After the games, Johnson would text his friends stories of highlight-worthy Durant dunks -- and the few stops he managed to get.
"It just gets me prepared for other dudes," Johnson said of matching up with Durant. "It has pushed my defense playing against him and Kyrie."
As the Nets have continued to battle a rash of injuries, many of the stay-ready players have gotten sizable minutes -- at least in a game or two. Johnson had 23 points and 15 rebounds against the Utah Jazz on his first day joining the team in late March. With Irving, Harden and Tyler Johnson all sidelined with injuries in early April, guard Chris Chiozza started against the Timberwolves in April.
Brown, who started most games over the past two seasons with the Detroit Pistons, said that initially playing in the stay-ready group was a tough adjustment. He remembers having several conversations on the sidelines with Nets assistant Ryan Forehan-Kelly -- a walk-on for the Cal Golden Bears in the late 1990s -- about what exactly he needed to do to break through.
"They told me that my time was going to come, they just don't know when it was going to come," Brown said. "So, before every game I would be like, maybe it's tonight, maybe it's not, but I have to be ready when my name is called."
Brown embraced the early-season challenge. Now the undersized small forward is a fixture in the Nets' rotation averaging nearly 27 minutes per game in April. His work in the stay-ready group paid off when he made his first start on Jan. 5 at home against the Utah Jazz.
"I didn't know until we pregame [that I was starting]," Brown said. "And I just started smiling, instantly. I was instantly ecstatic. I knew I was ready.
"Ever since then, I haven't looked back."
BROOKLYN'S DEFICIT HAD now ballooned to 22 points with 8:21 remaining against Philadelphia. By the numbers, the 76ers had a 99.9% probability to seal the win against the Nets' stay-ready closing lineup brought in for mop-up duty.
Then, it happened.
Nearly a full season's worth of preparation came to fruition, possession by possession. A 3-pointer from Brown. A defensive stop. A floater from Claxton. Free throws from Luwawu-Cabarrot. Another stop.
A 10-0 run in 3 minutes and 21 seconds brought All-Stars Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, who'd been snuggling in their warmups on the bench, back on the floor to stop the bleeding. But even with Philly's All-Stars back on the court, the stay-ready squad's onslaught continued. Shamet hit a pull-up jumper. Then a tip shot from Johnson.
A once-insurmountable lead was cut to three points. Durant, in street clothes, whipped a white towel on the sidelines. Griffin, who was not playing in the second half of back-to-back games, pulled down his mask to scream.
But a block by Embiid and a few fouls that led to Sixers free throws canceled the Nets' comeback attempt.
"I'm still mad about it," Johnson said. "Because if we win that game, we're talked about forever."
Moral victories, such as nearly pulling off a comeback against one of the conference's top teams, being trusted to check in for crunch time or earning a spot in the Nets' rotation, aren't enough to cause a raucous celebration. It's all part of the job when you're part of Brooklyn's stay-ready group.
Like the rest of the team, they have their eyes set on contributing to something bigger.
"When we win a championship," Johnson said, "That's when we'll pop champagne."