Once again, the Nets did not respect the game, looking over a lost enemy.
And once again, they received a huge slice of humble pie, this time a 122-111 defeat in Detroit against the worst basketball team.
This time, the Nets spotted the Pistons last 20 points in the second quarter, reducing it to two in the third before capitulating in the fourth.
“My message was personal pride, connectivity and coming together. Just resistance. We can’t start the game with 10, and with 20 in the second half, expecting it to be easy, “said coach Steve Nash.
“You have to want to fight with your teammates, to make the other team extremely difficult, to make them miserable. I did not do this. … We have a lot to clean up. Number one is that attitude and that level of competition and that connectivity. There are things you can’t draw, you can’t practice. You just have to bring it in, and I haven’t felt it in 48 minutes. ”
Kyrie Irving – back from his absence in a single game and playing with tape on his injured right index finger – finished with 27 points, but shot only 12 of 28 and 2 of 9 from deep. James Harden added 24 points and 12 assists, but had seven turnovers.
The Nets (14-12) gave up the worst season in a row and continued to play until the competition. They are the best players in the NBA with 7-1 against teams. 500 or more, but fell to 7-11 against teams that lost.
“I don’t accept that, I don’t think our team accepts it,” Irving said. “We don’t want it to be what the teams think of us. We see day in and day out that teams come in and hit us with their mouths early and we play recovery; and happens to be against the boys with [worst] records. We need to tell him what it’s like and we need to fix it. It requires maturity, responsibility and realizing what we need to do first.
“It simply came to our notice then. We have the talent that the eyes test [shows] we should dominate. … We need to turn that corner. We haven’t done it yet, but we will. And I’m telling you, the league will know when that happens. ”
If someone had searched the dictionary – OK, well, Googled – for a trap game, the Pistons (6-18) would have been the definition.
But in the face of the weakest team in the league, the Nets let the Pistons reach a season high 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 were 10 behind on Grant’s cut dunk. They never resumed leadership.
Brooklyn finished the first quarter down 38-26 in an abysmal defensive mess. Irving was targeted on switches, the Nets were either beaten from dribbling or sucked in to help when they did their teammates, leaving their men open for dunks and layups.
The Nets lost 8-0, trailing 49-29 to Isaiah Stewart’s 3-pointer with 9:14 left in the half. And no one was more guilty than DeAndre Jordan, beaten several times. Harden had multiple lively discussions in the first half with him, as did Nash.
“Defensively, we have some shortcomings. We need to be better. I mean, [crap]”I have to be better for us, defensively,” Jordan admitted. “We all need to be better, but I take on a little more ownership in this regard, because that’s something I love and a lot of the reason I’m there for us. We need to be better, but I take a lot of it. ”
Jeff Green made it 63-54 at the break. With Bruce Brown replacing him to start the half, the Nets mounted a 7-0 run to go 74-70.
3 of Irving reduced the deficit to 79-77 by five minutes for the third. But the Nets allowed a 7-0 run to see the lead return to 101-89 with 8:54 to play.
“He just comes back and tells us you can’t play BS like we did before,” Jordan said. “We hope we learned from this slippage that we are now and responsible.”