The Nets’ most impressive victory of the season came in a Jazz battle immediately after New Year’s Eve. Wednesday’s short rematch in Utah was equally unbalanced, tilted in the opposite direction.
James Harden’s neck injury left Big 3 interrupted for the first time, and the result was as bad as expected. The Nets were beaten 118-88 by Jazz, the NBA leader, in front of a crowd of 5,546 sold at Vivint Arena.
Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Spencer Dinwiddie, Landry Shamet and Blake Griffin were already out, and Harden’s loss left Brooklyn decimated. Utah (32-11) did the rest, leading by up to 38 points and giving the Nets a beating.
It was the Nets’ lowest score of the season and they became the last team this year to suffer a defeat of at least 20.
“Yeah, we’re not taking any of that, we’re missing the top three players, we’re missing Blake,” said Steve Nash. “Once the game got out early, we were able to rest the other rotating boys.
“So we don’t take anything from this game, except for the opportunity for young people to develop and play and get a chance. So we’re going to move to Detroit and hopefully we’ll have some guys back to play. “
The Nash and the Nets had nothing to do with it but be philosophical, wash it up and move on to Friday’s game in Detroit.
With only 10 active players – some of whom had just met – the Nets shot only 36.1 percent and 7 of 35 from 3 points. In fact, they were led by newcomer G Leaguer Alize Johnson, who just arrived late Tuesday night and discussed some basics in the morning of the game.
The fact that Johnson led the Nets in the score (23 points) and in the comeback (15) was both a proof for him and an indicator of how he spent the night.
“Just [want to] I prove to everyone that I belong here in the NBA and that I put in a lot of work and I will continue to work and be the best player I can be, ”said Johnson, who received advice from Nash and Harden.
“Going there and playing hard and just having fun. Hearing this from the two boys makes you confident to play there. ”
Donovan Mitchell scored 27 points in 27 minutes for Utah, who scored their 17th straight home win.
“It’s a great team, the team with the best record in the league,” Nash said. “We came out extremely submissive and, most importantly, we stayed together, we played hard, defensively they were pretty good – maybe we gave up too many 3, but otherwise we did a lot of good things defensively. I just told them I was proud of them. ”
The Nets fell behind 16-4 just outside the goal and followed with 21 after a first quarter.
He got out of control so quickly that Nash gave Joe Harris only 4:57 before deciding to rest him for Friday’s final trip to Detroit. The loss dropped the Nets two games behind the 76ers for the first time in the East.
The Nets (30-15) had beaten Utah 130-96 in their Jan. 5 clash, but this time, the Jazz showed the role of the league’s best team.
The Nets had more of a G-League vibe, with debutant Reggie Perry scoring 12 points and eight touchdowns in his first NBA appearance on Jan. 31.
“Just put in a lot of work all the time [G League] bubbles and all the time after I came back, ”Perry said. “It felt good to get into a game and see that the work pays off a little, to actually run.”
Georges Niang of Utah closed the first quarter with a 3 to note Jazz with a 38-17 lead. Brooklyn forced nine straight errors to go 40-28 in the middle of the second, but an 18-4 run with a Royce O’Neale 3 left them in the hole 58-32.
The Nets went 63-38 at the break, their half with the lowest score of the season. A 15-2 Jazz race to open the third widened the gap to 78-40 on a Mitchell 3.