The Nets’ most impressive victory all season had come in a beating from the Jazz just after New Year. Wednesday’s short rematch in Utah was just as skewed, the other way.
James Harden’s neck injury put the Big 3 offside for the first time and the result was as ugly as expected. The Nets were hammered 118-88 by the NBA leading Jazz in front of a sold-out crowd of 5,546 at Vivint Arena.
Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Spencer Dinwiddie, Landry Shamet and Blake Griffin were all out already, and Harden’s loss left Brooklyn decimated. Utah (32-11) did the rest, leading with no less than 38 points and beating what was left of the Nets.
It was the Nets’ lowest-scoring output of the season and they became the last team this year to be defeated by at least 20.
“Yeah, we’re not taking any of this, we’re missing our top three players, miss Blake,” said Steve Nash. “When the game came out early, we were able to rest some of our other rotation boys.
“So we’re not taking anything from this game, except the chance for young boys to develop and play and have a chance. So we move on to Detroit and hopefully we have some guys back to play. “
Nash and his Nets had nothing to do with this other than being philosophical, flushing and moving on to Friday’s game in Detroit.
With only 10 active players – some of whom had literally met – the Nets fired just 36.1 percent, and 7 of 35 from a 3-point range. They were actually led by the newly signed G Leaguer Alize Johnson, who arrived late Tuesday night and discussed a few basic things the morning of the game.
The fact that Johnson led the Nets by scoring (23 points) and rebounding (15) was both evidence to him and an indication of how the night turned out.
“Only [want to] prove to everyone that I belong here in the NBA, and I’ve worked hard and I just keep working and being the best player I can be, ”said Johnson, who was advised by Nash and Harden.
“Go out and play hard and just have fun. When you hear that from those two guys, you feel confident that you are going out to play. “
Donovan Mitchell had 27 points in 27 minutes for Utah, which registered a 17th home win in a row.
“That’s a great team, the team with the best record in the league,” said Nash. “We went out seriously understaffed, and most of all stayed together, played hard, defensively were pretty good – maybe we gave up too many 3s, but otherwise we did a lot of good things defensively. I just told them I was proud of them. “
The Nets trailed directly out of the gate 16-4, and were behind by 21 after the first quarter.
Things got out of hand so quickly that Nash gave Joe Harris just 4:57 before deciding to equip him for Friday’s final of the Detroit road trip. The loss left the Nets two games behind the 76ers for the first time in the East.
The Nets (30-15) had drilled Utah 130-96 in their January 5 collision, but this time the Jazz appeared to be the part of the league’s best team.
The Nets had more of a G League vibe, with rookie Reggie Perry scoring 12 points and eight boards in his first NBA appearance since January 31.
“Just a lot of work all the time in the [G League] bubble and all the time after I got back, ”Perry said. “It felt good to really get into a game and see that the work was kind of rewarding, to really run.”
Georges Niang from Utah ended the first quarter with a 3 and saw the Jazz take a 38-17 lead. Brooklyn forced nine consecutive misses to come in 40-28 halfway through the second, but an 18-4 run with a Royce O’Neale 3 left them on a 58-32 hole.
The Nets trailed 63-38 at half-time, their lowest-scoring half of the season. A 15-2 Jazz run to open the third widened the gap to 78-40 on a Mitchell 3.