{"id":185094,"date":"2026-04-04T02:40:46","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T02:40:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/185094\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T02:40:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T02:40:46","slug":"brooklyn-nets-fade-into-the-abyss-vs-atlanta-hawks-lose-141-107","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/185094\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn Nets fade into the abyss vs Atlanta Hawks, lose 141-107"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Atlanta Hawks have had three seasons in one. They started with Trae Young, Kristaps Porzi\u0146\u0123is, and as a team so unanimously picked as a \u201cdark horse\u201d in the East, the label eventually stopped fitting. Then, they were lost, going through a 5-13 stretch and reckoned with trading the face of the franchise. A few weeks later, they did it, went 26-12, and got right to where we expected them to be, just for entirely different reasons.<\/p>\n

The Nets? They\u2019ve had one stagnant, numbing, and gray campaign. It\u2019s almost at an end, and that\u2019s undoubtedly for the better.<\/p>\n

Brooklyn started tonight with Nolan Traor\u00e9, Drake Powell, Terance Mann, Noah Clowney, and Nic Claxton. The latter two almost didn\u2019t suit up, tagged with wrist and ankle soreness injuries earlier in the week, but came off the injury report a few hours before the game. Their presence on the floor, however, didn\u2019t offer much of a lift.<\/p>\n

Less than a minute into the game, Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez was already hoping for a restart. He called a timeout 58 seconds deep after Claxton and Traor\u00e9 got confused on who needed to cover CJ McCollum in the corner after amid a simple pick-and-roll sequence. That only briefly stalled what became a trampling 25-8 for Atlanta to start the game. Brooklyn also turned it over five times on their first 14 possessions.<\/p>\n

\u201cPoor executing on our end,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cPlayed this team four times. We just were not good enough, starting with the guys that bring the ball up the floor, tried to get us into something organized, it was very poor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once more, the Nets looked to their understudies for a spark, and got it in the shape of Malachi Smith. In five minutes spanning the end of the first and start of the second period, the Long Island product went 4-4 from the field and 3-3 from deep to pull Brooklyn to within four with 10:59 to play in the second. He could have had even more, had the first period been another half second longer\u2026<\/p>\n

That jolt helped the Nets hang around, down 10, for much of the second. But even as Traor\u00e9 poked away the occasional steal and Terance Mann hit the occasional a jumper, Brooklyn couldn\u2019t get any closer. The turnovers continued to stack and naturally progressed into fast break points for Atlanta. The Hawks ran for 20 transition points in the first half and had 23 off turnovers. They led 71-55 at the break, posting .558\/.526 splits.<\/p>\n

Clowney and Claxton started the second half far better on both sides of the ball. Brooklyn wasn\u2019t as over-zealous throwing two at the ball as they\u2019ve been in prior showings, but seemed allergic to stopping entry passes and the shots that followed in the opening two frames. But in the third, they were on time and on task getting vertical, collectively forcing three straight misses inside to begin the period. They also scored Brooklyn\u2019s first eight points in it.<\/p>\n

However, right as things were getting started for Clowney, they were over. With 5:37 left in the third, he got wrapped up with Mouhamed Gueye on a loose ball, who kept him pinned on the ground for a handful of seconds after a jump ball had been called. After the \u201cplay\u201d if you can even call it that, Clowney got up and continued jawing at Gueye and the officials. The latter gave him a second technical and ejected him.<\/p>\n

Swiftly turned away from the prospect of getting production from their veterans, the Nets went back to what originally worked. Malachi Smith hit another pair of triples soon after that, making it a 10-point game yet again with just under three remaining in the third.<\/p>\n

And again, when the Nets were ready to try and make this one a game, they were turned away. A flurry of threes McCollum, Cory Kispert, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker pumped the lead closer to 20 early in the fourth. All game, Brooklyn waited for Atlanta to cool off, but that moment never came. The Hawks shot 20-40 from three for the game, guiding the Nets to another quiet loss despite a near .50\/.40 game.<\/p>\n

In place of competitive basketball, we again had tryout from Long Island as our entertainment down the stretch.<\/p>\n

Tre Scott, who signed a 10-day earlier this week<\/a>, came in with 7:42 remaining. It was the first NBA appearance by the 29-year-old since the 2021-22 season. He finished with six points and two rebounds on 2-3 shooting in those minutes.<\/p>\n

Despite not sitting in the fourth quarter yet again, Claxton led the Nets with 16 points while shooting 7-10 from the field, grabbing five boards and dishing two dimes. Malachi Smith followed him with 15 points while shooting 5-8 from the field. Traor\u00e9 grinded his way to a 13\/4\/2 game. On the bright side, after having three straight games of four or more turnovers, he had just two this evening.<\/p>\n

Still, Fern\u00e1ndez indicated that he left a little bit out there.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has taken advantage of some minutes, but not all of them,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, he has to have the mindset of taking advantage of all the minutes in place, especially right now, at this moment, these minutes, they\u2019re very, very viable. Got to continue to coach him\u2026If you remember, up to the All-Star break, he had a pretty impressive stretch of games, and sustaining, it\u2019s not about the points, it was like the energy, how he communicated, everything else that he created. Right now, I haven\u2019t seen it consistently.\u201d<\/p>\n

The coached acknowledged a few games ago that Traor\u00e9 is feeling the effects of the \u201crookie wall\u201d and hinted at that again tonight. Indeed. perhaps, he\u2019s just tired. Perhaps we all are.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, there\u2019s a lot of games is. The experience, he needs to go through it to be able to come back, work, get stronger, and be able to sustain,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cMentally, the NBA, it\u2019s very, very, very hard in that regard. You see guys that have done it for many years, so they\u2019re, in that regard, ahead of you, but sometimes with our guys, if I do get frustrated, it\u2019s because I believe they\u2019re very good, and I do believe he\u2019s a high level point guard. We all think, \u2018Well, he\u2019s young, he\u2019ll be able to do it.\u2018 And in my mind, I don\u2019t are about how young he is. I know he can do it right now. So that will always be my fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Final: Atlanta Hawks 141, Brooklyn Nets 107<\/p>\n

Malachi Smith\u2019s 15 points tonight against Atlanta are his second-most career points (high is 18 vs. SAC, 3\/22) and most career 3-pointers made (previous high was three vs. SAC, 3\/22)With Smith\u2019s four 3-pointers tonight, he is tied for the most by an undrafted rookie in a game in Nets history (Chris Childs, 03\/18\/1995 at NY, Billy Thomas, 02\/09\/2005 vs LAL, and Tyson Etienne, 04\/10\/2025 vs ATL).<\/p>\n

Egor Speaks on VC and Development<\/p>\n

It was Egor D\u00ebmin\u2019s turn to speak with the YES crew during tonight\u2019s game. The rookie, ruled out for the rest of the season as he manages plantar fascia in his left foot, spoke with Sarah Kustok and Noah Eagle during the third quarter. He touched on how he\u2019s worked with Vince Carter, his injury recovery, the development of Brooklyn\u2019s team, and more.<\/p>\n

The full interview can be found on gothamsports.com<\/a> for those with a subscription.<\/p>\n

Pregame, Fern\u00e1ndez essentially said Michael Porter Jr. and Danny Wolf will not return this season. MPJ hasn\u2019t played since March 10th having suffered a left hamstring strain. Wolf last played on March 22nd, where he rolled his ankle in a loss vs the Kings. The team diagnosed him with a left ankle sprain.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on where we are right now and based on where they\u2019re at with their rehab, and we only have one week left, they\u2019ll be out just from where they are,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said.<\/p>\n

Remarking on their seasons, Fern\u00e1ndez praised Wolf\u2019s versatility and shared that he\u2019s looking forward to how he progresses as a sophomore.<\/p>\n

\u201cDanny, from shooting the ball to playmaking to rebounding to being that primary ball-handler, playing off the ball, all those things, different lineups, which I\u2019m very happy with him,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cObviously efficiency is important. We believe he\u2019s a very good shooter. His playmaking efficiency has gotten better from college. And then defensively, I think you guys brought the point that he surprised a lot of people. He didn\u2019t surprise us. We felt like he could do all those things and keep bodies in front, keep guys in front of the ball and guard smaller guys. So he\u2019s been very, very good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fern\u00e1ndez also reached back for one final shot at the voters who snubbed Porter Jr. of an all-star bid this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s played at an All-Star level. In my opinion, he should have been an All-Star,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cAnd now I want him to come back here and have a chip on his shoulder, lead the team the way he\u2019s been doing the same way. That was a new thing for him, to lead by example and be the oldest guy. He went from being the youngest guy, or since I was with him, 19 all the way to 27, and now all of a sudden at 27 he\u2019s a vet. So that was an adjustment. He\u2019s done a great job, whether he used his voice or led by example.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

The tanking Super Bowl takes place on Sunday afternoon at the Barclays Center. The Nets will host the Washington Wizards at 3 p.m. EST. Your guess as to who plays is as good as mine, but household names will surely sit out, as will the guys pictured above. If the Nets lose, they\u2019ll tie the Wiz Kids in first place for lottery standings with four games remaining. Have fun!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Atlanta Hawks have had three seasons in one. They started with Trae Young, Kristaps Porzi\u0146\u0123is, and as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,1728,9,24,63],"class_list":{"0":"post-185094","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","10":"tag-brooklyn-news","11":"tag-nets-scores","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-nyc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}