Again, the Nets didn’t respect the game by looking past a losing enemy.
And again they were served a huge piece of humble pie, this time a 122-111 defeat in Detroit against the worst basketball team.
This time, the Nets saw the Pistons in last place a 20 point lead in the second quarter, which was cut to two in the third quarter before capitulating in the fourth.
“My message was personal pride, connectivity and coming together. Just resistance. We cannot start the game trailing 10, but trailing 20 in the second half, expecting it to come easy, ”said coach Steve Nash.
“You have to want to fight with your teammates, make it extremely difficult for the other team, make them miserable. We did not. … We have a lot to clean up. Number one is that attitude and that level of competition and that connectivity. Those are things you cannot draft, you cannot practice. You just have to bring it with you, and I haven’t felt that for 48 minutes. “
Kyrie Irving – back from his one-game absence 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 the deep end. James Harden added 24 points and 12 assists, but had seven turnovers.
The Nets (14-12) dropped their worst third straight of the season and continued to play back on the competition. They are an NBA best 7-1 against teams of .500 or higher, but fell to 7-11 against losing squads.
“I don’t accept that, I don’t think our team will accept it,” said Irving. “We don’t want teams to think that way about us. We see it day in and day out where teams come in and hit us in the mouth early, and we play 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 that. That requires maturity, it takes responsibility, and it requires a sense of what we need to do to move forward.
“We look very average. We have the talent to pass the eye test [shows] we should dominate. … We have to turn that corner. We haven’t done it yet, but we will. And I’m telling you the league will be watched when that happens. “
If you’d looked in the dictionary – okay, fine, googled – for a trap game, the Pistons (6-18) would have been the definition.
But against the worst-shooting team in the league, the Nets let the Pistons hit 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 run of 13-0 and were 10 behind Grant’s cutting dunk. They never took over again.
Brooklyn ended the first quarter trailing 38-26 in deplorable defensive disarray. Irving focused on switches, Nets were either knocked out of the dribble or sucked in to help out when their teammates did, leaving their men open to dunks and layups.
The Nets gave up an 8-0 run and got behind 49-29 on Isaiah Stewart’s 3-pointer 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 did Nash.
“We have some defensive setbacks. We must be better. I mean, [crap]”I have to be better for us defensively,” admitted Jordan. “We all need to get better, but I’m just taking a little more responsibility on that, because that’s something I love and a big part of why I’m out there for us. We have to be better, but I take a lot of that. “
Jeff Green’s driving dunk made it 63-54 at the break. With Bruce Brown replacing him to start the half, the Nets put on a run of 7-0 to get it to 74-70.
Irving’s 3 narrowed the deficit to 79-77 with five minutes to go in the third. But the Nets gave up a 7-0 run to see the lead back to 101-89 with 8:54 play.
“It just falls back on us and lets us know you can’t play the game like we did at the beginning,” Jordan said. “Hopefully we will learn from this slip that we are on now and we will respond.”