Jordi Fernández was a big fan of the Brooklyn Nets’ performance against the Sacramento Kings on Sunday evening, a hard-fought game that resulted in a 126-122 Kings victory.
The head coach called it a “very positive” game for the squad. Ben Saraf turned had a career-best performance as did Malachi Smith, Ziaire Williams handled more on-ball opportunities well, and the team only turned it over seven times total. Aside from Danny Wolf’s gnarly ankle sprain, the worst part might have been how close the Nets actually came to winning. Alas, they lost, taking a huge step to securing, at worst, the 3rd best NBA Draft Lottery odds.
The second half of their back-to-back went much differently. Sunday’s game was a nail-biter, and given the stakes, that was wholly unsurprising. Meanwhile, Monday night’s game tipped off at 10:10 p.m. ET, and the game did not end until after 12:30 thanks to an inordinate amount of fouling in the first half. Nic Claxton returned from a one-game rest absence, but Drake Powell and Terance Mann joined Wolf and Noah Clowney on the injury report, in addition to the MPJ/Sharpe/Dëmin trio nursing more serious injuries back on the East Coast.
For night owls, some pleasant, low-stakes background noise. For Nets fans with work in the morning, maybe a chance to catch on some sleep.
Pregame, Fernández emphasized two keys: handling Portland’s ball pressure on offense and protecting the paint on defense. His team played hard, particularly given the rough scheduling circumstances, but they did not execute in either of these areas.
Toumani Camara, Jrue Holiday, and Matisse Thybulle applied defensive pressure commensurate with having a rim protector like Donovan Clingan on the backline. The Nets committed 22 turnovers in this one, though the Blazers committed 24 themselves; in any case, it was not a very pretty basketball game.
Brooklyn also couldn’t protect their paint, though given the absence of every non-Clax big on the roster, it’s tough to blame them here. There were even some shining moments early on, like Nolan Traore blocking Clingan in help…
But the Blazers took 40 free-throws, led of course by Deni Avdija taken a dozen. They also shot 25-of-37 in the paint, whereas Brooklyn once again could not score against the 7’2” Clingan in drop coverage. The Nets shot just 20-of-44 in the paint, though Chaney Johnson did provide one major highlight…
Johnson was one of seven Nets who reached double-digits on the evening, though his five turnovers were tough to swallow. It was the night where his lack of size at the center position finally came to a head, given the opponent.
It wasn’t too surprising that Brooklyn struggled to score on the interior; what really turned the game into a blowout was the 3-point shooting disparity on top of it. Tyson Etienne got hot in the fourth quarter, actually leading the team in scoring with 18, while Josh Minott shot 2-of-4 from deep and Williams’ only make was a 4-point play, but as a team, the Nets shot just 8-of-29 from three.
On the other side, Camara made nine by himself. Yes, Toumani Camara scored 35 points, shot 9-of-11 from deep, and by garbage time, he was really feeling himself, taking heat-checks from the logo and tween-tween pull-ups…
To recap, the Nets did not shoot well from two or three, and turned it over a ton.
When Fernández got asked where the game went “off track,” he did not mince words: “At every level. We got outplayed. we lost every single quarter. So, no excuse of any kind. The second-chance, the free-throws, the points off turnovers ended up being even, but we lost the possession game. We lost the physicality part of it, the effort, everything.”
And there you have it. Jalen Wilson reached double-figures in his first start of the season, as did Claxton, and Ziaire Williams scored another 16 points on just seven FGAs, but this was not a memorable evening. After two equally exciting but very different games against the New York Knicks and Sacramento Kings, we were due for this. These end-of-season exercises in futility weren’t all going to be easy on the eyes.
Final Score: Portland Trail Blazers 134, Brooklyn Nets 99
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The Brooklyn Nets continue their West Coast road trip by visiting the Golden State Warriors. Tip-off is scheduled for 10:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday.