Once again, the Nets disrespected the game by looking beyond a losing opponent.
And again, they received a huge slice of humble cake, this time a 122-111 loss in Detroit against the worst basketball team.
This time, the Nets saw the last placed Pistons with a 20 point lead in the second quarter, reduced it to two in the third before capitulating in the fourth.
“My message was personal pride, connectivity and togetherness. Only resistance. We cannot start the game with 10 casualties, be with 20 in the second half hoping it will be easy, ”said coach Steve Nash.
“You have to want to fight with your teammates, make things extremely difficult for the other team, make them miserable. We didn’t do that. … We have a lot to clean up. Number one is that attitude, that level of competition and that connectivity. These are things you cannot draw, you cannot practice. You just have to bring it, and I haven’t felt it for 48 minutes. “
Kyrie Irving – back from his absence from a game and playing with tape on his injured right index finger – finished with 27 points, but hit only 12 of 28 and 2 of 9 in depth. James Harden had 24 points and 12 assists, but had seven twists.
The Nets (14-12) lost their worst third consecutive streak and continued to play against the competition. They are the NBA’s best 7-1 against .500 teams or more, but have dropped to 7-11 against losing teams.
“I don’t accept that, I don’t think our team does,” said Irving. “We don’t want this to be what the teams think of us. We are seeing this day after day, where teams are arriving and punching us in the mouth early, and we are trying to catch up; and it happens to be against the guys with the [worst] records. We have to call it what it is and we have to fix it. This requires maturity, responsibility and an understanding of what we need to do in the future.
“We look very average. We have the talent that the eye test [shows] we must be dominating. … We have to turn this corner. We haven’t done that yet, but we will. And I’m saying that the league will be notified when that happens. “
If someone looked in the dictionary – OK, fine, Googled – for a trap game, the Pistons (6-18) would have been the definition.
But facing the worst pitching team in the league, the Nets let the Pistons reach the season’s record of 55.4%. 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 at Grant’s dunk. They never took the lead again.
Brooklyn ended the first quarter losing 38-26, in an abysmal defensive disorder. Irving was the target of switches, Nets was either defeated on the dribble or sucked to help when his teammates did, leaving his men open for dunks and layups.
The Nets surrendered to an 8-0 run, falling behind 49-29 in Isaiah Stewart’s 3-point basket with 9:14 remaining in the middle. And no one was more guilty than DeAndre Jordan, who was beaten several times. Harden had several lively conversations with him in the first half, as did Nash.
“Defensively we have some lapses. We have to be better. I mean, [crap], I have to be better for us, defensively, ”Jordan admitted. “We all have to be better, but I just take a little more control over that, because this is something I love and a big part of the reason why I am there for us. We have to be better, but I can take it a lot. “
Jeff Green’s dunk made 63-54 at halftime. With Bruce Brown replacing him at the start of the interval, the Nets set up a 7-0 streak to reach 74-70.
Irving’s 3 reduced the deficit to 79-77 with five minutes remaining for the third. But the Nets allowed a 7-0 run to get the lead back to 101-89 with 8:54 left.
“It just falls on us and lets us know that you can’t ruin the game like we did at the beginning,” said Jordan. “We hope to learn from this slippage we are in now and respond.”