Once again, the Nets despised the game by looking past a lost enemy.
And once again, they served a big chunk of humble pie, this time a 122-111 defeat in Detroit against the worst team in basketball.
This time, the Nets Pistons led by 20 points in the second quarter in last place, cutting it to two in the third quarter before capitulating in the fourth.
“My message was personal pride, connectivity and togetherness. Just resistance. We can not take the game under 10, but be down by 20 in the second half and expect it to be easy, “said coach Steve Nash.
‘You have to fight with your teammates, make it very difficult for the other team and make them miserable. We did not do that. … We have to clean a lot. The number one is that attitude and that level of competition and that connectivity. These are things that you can not set up, and that you can not practice. You just have to bring it with you, and I did not feel it for 48 minutes. ”
Kyrie Irving – back from his absence from one game and played with tape to his injured right finger – finished with 27 points, but shot just 12 of 28 and 2 of 9 from deep. James Harden added 24 points and 12 assists, but scored seven turnovers.
The Nets (14-12) dropped their worst third consecutive season and still played until the competition. They are an NBA best 7-1 against teams .500 or older, but fell 7-11 against losing teams.
“I do not accept it, I do not think our team accepts it,” Irving said. “We do not want them to be our teams. We see it day-in and day-out where teams come in and hit us early in the mouth, and we play catch up; and it happens to be against the guys with the [worst] records. We need to call it what it is and we need to correct it. It needs a maturity, that requires accountability and that realizes what we need to do to move forward.
“We look very average. We have the talent that the eye test [shows] we must dominate. … We have to turn the corner. We have not done that yet, but we have. And I’m telling you that the league will be up to date when that happens. ”
If one had searched the dictionary – OK, fine, Googled – for a trap, the Pistons (6-18) would have been the definition.
But against the league’s weakest team, the Nets gave the Pistons a season-high 55.4 percent. Jerami Grant had 32 points and Delon Wright added 22.
After Joe Harris opened the night with a 3, the Nets allowed a 13-0 run and fell behind by 10 on Grant’s cut. They never took the lead again.
Brooklyn ended the first quarter 38-26, in an abyss of defense. Irving focused on switches, and Nets hit the dribble or sucked to help when their teammates did, leaving their men open for divers and layouts.
The Nets surrendered an 8-0 run and trailed 49-29 on Isaiah Stewart’s 3-point lead with 9:14 left in the half. And no one was more guilty than DeAndre Jordan, who was beaten several times. Harden had several animated conversations with him in the first half, as well as Nash.
“We defensively have some decay. We need to be better. I mean, [crap]”I have to be defensively better for us,” Jordan admitted. ‘We all need to be better, but I’m just taking a little more ownership in the end because it’s something I love a lot and a big part of why I’m there for us. We need to be better, but I take a lot of that. ”
Jeff Green’s driving spot made the halftime score 63-54. With the replacement of Bruce Brown to start the half, the Nets took a 7-0 run to bring it to 74-70.
Irving’s 3 reduced the deficit to 79-77 with five minutes left in the third. But the Nets allowed a 7-0 run to see the lead play to 101-89 with 8:54 left.
“It just falls back on us and let us know that you can not BS the game like we did before,” Jordan said. “Hopefully we learn from this disc that we are currently working and responding.”