The Nets’ home opener was a wreck, from the testy pro-Kyrie Irving protests outside that forced Barclays Center to briefly close its doors, to getting their doors blown off in a 111-95 loss to the Hornets.
After leading by double-digits just before halftime and by nine in the third quarter, the Nets got blitzed 32-17 in a sorry fourth quarter to lose their home opener before a sellout crowd of 17,732, including Jay-Z sitting right next to their bench.
“We really just didn’t guard them. They literally got anything they wanted. They were comfortable and were out there making plays, so we just weren’t aggressive,” Bruce Brown said of the final period, when the Nets defense let the Hornets shot .636 overall and go 4-for-5 from 3-point range.
“Yeah, individual defense. They made a lot of tough shots over us, they made 3-pointers over us in that fourth, they made pull-up jump shots overhead, and then they were able to get to the rim,” Kevin Durant said.
Miles Bridges torched the Nets for 32 points to lead four Hornets in double-figures. Meanwhile, Durant was the lone offensive bright spot for the Nets.
Durant had a game-high 38 points, but James Harden, who scored 15 points, was the only other Net in double-figures. And he was off his game, with eight turnovers.
“A lot of them were just indecisive. They got out in transition getting easy ones,” Harden said. “For us, 17 turnovers, that’s how they get active and have their transition and make 3s.”
Other than Durant, the rest of the Nets combined for 57 points on 21-for-63 shooting.
Irving is ineligible to play home games due to his refusal to get a COVID-19 vaccine, and the Nets have shelved him until he’s fully available. For the time being, the Nets are going to be missing an All-Star difference-maker.
But Durant knows that’s no alibi.
“While we’re playing in a game, I’m not going to sit there and say ‘Oh, when we get down or it’s a tight game, like, damn, we don’t have enough.’ We’re not going to be thinking about [Irving] during the game,” Durant said. “We definitely want Kyrie Irving out here on the floor, and he’s a huge part of what we do. But it’s not happening right now. So we’ve got to figure it out.
“But no one is going to lose confidence while we’re playing and hope Kyrie comes to save us during the game. No, we’ve got to play. … It’s a matter of us coming together and figuring out which way we need to play on both ends of the floor.”
Every Net guarding his man would be a good start. So would kicking their habit of digging first-quarter holes.
After falling behind by 19 in the season-opener at Milwaukee and then by 14 at Philadelphia, the Nets fell behind 9-2 right out of the gate Sunday.
Finally, after trailing 19-13, the Nets responded with a 13-2 run.
Paul Millsap found LaMarcus Aldridge to knot the score at 21-all, and hit a 3 off a drive-and-kick from Durant to put the Nets ahead.
They padded their cushion to double-digits when Durant hit a pull-up that made it 57-47 with just over 30 seconds left before intermission. His dunk put the Nets up 68-59 four minutes into the second half, but that’s when they let the game slip.
Clinging to a 70-64 edge after Brown made a cutting layup off a Harden feed, the Nets allowed a 9-2 run. Bridges had a three-point play to cap the Hornets’ spurt.
Charlotte went small and the Nets couldn’t stay in front of their man. Ish Smith’s pull-up gave the Hornets a 79-78 lead after three quarters, and the Nets never led in the fourth.
Harden’s bank shot pulled them within 84-83 a little over two minutes into the fourth, but the Hornets closed with a 27-12 run.
“It became a one-on-one game, and we couldn’t guard the ball as well. That was the bottom line,” head coach Steve Nash said. “They got some run-outs, easy baskets in transition. We struggled, we got static, we stopped attacking the basket and just were not ourselves in the second half.“We weren’t sharp enough, we weren’t competitive enough, even offensively, to take the ball to the basket. We turned it over, we settled for difficult shots instead of playing with energy and pace trying to get to the basket and we struggled.”
"lose" - Google News
October 25, 2021 at 05:49AM
https://ift.tt/3E9IiSb
Nets lose to Hornets in ugly home opener after pro-Kyrie Irving protests - New York Post
"lose" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3fa3ADu https://ift.tt/2VWImBB
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Nets lose to Hornets in ugly home opener after pro-Kyrie Irving protests - New York Post"
Post a Comment