As the Brooklyn Nets finished off their regular season on Wednesday night in Cleveland, much remained unknown about where and when they would begin their postseason.

But rather than push his starters in the season’s 82nd game in an effort to secure the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference, Nets coach Jason Kidd elected to give his most valuable veterans the night off to regroup ahead of the marathon that is the NBA’s postseason.

Wednesday afternoon, Coach Kidd announced that Deron Williams, Shaun Livingston, Joe Johnson, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Mizra Teletovic, and Alan Anderson would all be sidelined. That left Brooklyn with a seven-man roster of starters Marcus Thornton, Andray Blatche, Jason Collins, Jorge Gutierrez, and Marquis Teague, and reserves Andrei Kirilenko and Mason Plumlee.

Atlanta Hawks v Brooklyn Nets

The starting five played a bulk of the minutes and Cleveland, led by All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving and emerging big man Tyler Zeller, took advantage of the situation and beat the shorthanded Nets 114-85.

As a result of the loss and a win by the Washington Wizards in Boston, Brooklyn fell to the sixth spot in the East. They will face the Atlantic Division champion Toronto Raptors — who clinched the third seed when the Chicago Bulls lost in Charlotte — in the first round of the playoffs.

Afterward, Jason complimented the efforts of his sufficient seven and set course for the postseason.

“Guys played hard for 48 minutes.” he said. “Now we turn the page on the regular season and get ready for Toronto. We have to figure out how to win a game on the road.

[Toronto] can be a very hostile environment. They have great fans. And they have a great team, a team that won the Atlantic.”

The Nets should be buoyed in that quest by a lineup that is as healthy as it can be entering the postseason. Jason made sure they would be by giving seven of the nine players who logged the most minutes for him this season the night off on Wednesday.

“We’re healthy,” Kidd said after the game acknowledging this decision. “No one got hurt tonight. We’re a veteran ballclub, so I didn’t put a lot of minutes on a lot of guys. Hopefully that will pay off.”

Without Williams, Livingston, Johnson, Pierce, Garnett, Teletovic and Anderson, and with a rotation of just seven players, Wednesday’s game was an uphill battle. The Nets did start out strong, pulling ahead by four points on two separate occasions in the first four minutes of action. However, once a pair of Kyrie Irving free throws tied the game at 13-13, the Cavs took control.

Cleveland went on to finish the first frame on a 20-8 run, while shooting an astounding 13-of-20 from the field, to take a 33-21 advantage through 12 minutes of action.

Cleveland’s Anthony Bennett, the first overall pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, kicked off the second frame with layup to put Cleveland up by 14, but Coach Kidd’s squad stayed determined and fought their way back into the game.

Brooklyn Nets v Cleveland Cavaliers

Led by the sharp perimeter shooting of Gutierrez and Thornton and the inside game of Andre Kirilenko, Brooklyn went on a 12-2 run to cut the Cavs’ advantage to 37-36 with 7:52 left in the frame. Moments later, a key defensive rebound by Blatche turned into a Thornton trey that gave the Nets a 41-40 advantage.

The game went back and forth from that point, and the Cavs held a slim 51-49 advantage at halftime. After making just 38 percent of their shots in the first, Brooklyn shot an improved 45.5 percent from the field in the second and out-rebounded Cleveland 14-7 to close the double-digit gap on the scoreboard.

Coming out of the locker room for the final time in the 2013-14 regular season, the Nets could not find a rhythm, and although both squads shot under 40 percent from the field in the third quarter, the Cavs began to pull away. Just over three minutes into the half, Cleveland had extended its lead back to double digits and by the end of the third, the Cavs held a commanding 81-64 lead.

They extended that lead in the fourth by shooting 70 percent from the field en route to a 114-85 victory. Thornton and Blatche each scored 20 points in the losing effort, while Gutierrez contributed 13 for the Nets.

After the game, Coach Kidd told reporters that he was happy with the way his reserves competed against the Cavs and said he wasn’t worried about the team losing momentum heading into the postseason.

“We actually had a really good first half, so I’m proud of those guys,” Jason said. “We’ve been playing some pretty good basketball of late. We’ve rested, but guys have gotten their work in while at the same time getting some of the injuries, nicks and bruises that they have healed. I like where we are. It’s a good place.”

NEXT UP

The Nets will get a few days to reset before beginning their second season on Saturday in Toronto.

“It’s the playoffs,” Jason said. “It’s a new season, everybody’s zero and zero. It’s the first one to four.”

The division rivals met four times this season and split the series.

In their first meeting November 26th, Brooklyn withstood a late surge by the Raptors and pulled out a 102-100 victory. Blatche had 24 points and Johnson added 21.

Toronto captured the next two wins in the series, winning 96-80 on January 11th at Air Canada Centre, and edging the Nets 104-103 at Barclays Center on January 27th.

Toronto Raptors v Brooklyn Nets

Most recently, on March 10th, Kidd’s squad posted a key 101-97 win over the Raptors at home. Brooklyn’s 11-for-20 shooting from 3-point land gave them the edge over the visitors. Williams and Livingston each had 18 points.

“We’ve seen a lot of [Toronto],” Kidd said. “We had four pretty good games with them. They went back and forth and we split the series with them. It should be an exciting series.”

“They play hard. They’re well-coached and we will have our hands full. I’ve played for Coach Casey, so I know they’ll be well prepared.”

Tip-off for Game 1 of the series is currently scheduled for 12:30 p.m. EST Saturday, and the game will be nationally televised on ESPN.

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