{"id":46903,"date":"2025-11-21T03:49:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T03:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/46903\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T03:49:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T03:49:09","slug":"young-nets-fourth-quarter-finishes-remain-big-work-in-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/46903\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Nets’ fourth quarter finishes remain big work in progress"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Nets saw another fourth-quarter lead slip away <\/a>against a good team Tuesday night in Brooklyn, and as they prepared to face the same Celtics in Boston on Friday, they knew they had plenty to fix before they could change that.<\/p>\n

Not only are the Nets young, but they also have a team that hasn\u2019t played together all that much yet and that\u2019s especially evident during the end of games when it matters most.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think with the fourth-quarter execution, a lot of things that we did well throughout the game, we didn\u2019t do in the fourth,\u201d Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez said following practice in Brooklyn on Thursday. \u201cA lot of times, it\u2019s just hard in this league to have that level of intensity and focus. I believe we can keep doing those things and, obviously, playing against teams that have players that have been there, with the experience, with the talent level, is very good for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The goal is for the Nets to approach that same kind of stability as a franchise.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve got a veteran leader in Michael Porter Jr. who just arrived this season, as well as those who have been in Brooklyn longer \u2014 like longest-tenured Net Nic Claxton \u2014 but others have been with the team for a while and are still learning the ropes.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where Noah Clowney comes in.<\/p>\n

The third-year forward has spent his career with the Nets but is still just 21.<\/p>\n

Asked what he made of the fourth-quarter issues, with the Nets being outscored 18-3 by the Celtics at one point, Clowney said it was \u201cthe same thing\u201d they\u2019ve dealt with before.<\/p>\n

\"NoahNoah Clowney reacts during the second half of the Nets\u2019 loss to the Raptors on Nov. 11, 2025 at Barclays Center. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

\u201cWe play so hard to put ourselves in a position where we can win games, but we don\u2019t know quite how to finish games,\u201d Clowney said of the roster that hasn\u2019t played as a unit all that much. \u201cYou see against older teams that have been together, they kind of know where they want to get to at the end of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere we\u2019re almost timid, like we don\u2019t know what we want to do. We\u2019re just not good at executing it yet. I think that will come with time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Until then, though, expect the losses to pile up.<\/p>\n

After Friday\u2019s game in Boston, the Nets visit the Raptors in Toronto, host the Knicks and 76ers before heading to Milwaukee.<\/p>\n

All five of those games are against playoff contenders, while the Nets are 2-12 and perhaps on their way to the worst season in franchise history.<\/p>\n

Of course, that\u2019s partially by design, with the organization looking at finally landing a star in the draft.<\/p>\n

\"BrooklynEgor D\u0451min (left) greets Noah Clowney in the first half of the Nets\u2019 loss to the Celtics on Nov. 18, 2025 at Barclays Center. JASON SZENES\/ NY POST<\/p>\n

They ended up winning 26 games and getting the eighth pick in the draft last season, and the player they took with that pick, Egor D\u00ebmin, clearly has some offensive skill, but he\u2019s been on the bench during crucial moments late in games.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s adjusting on the fly.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFollow all the basketball buzz in Brooklyn\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Nets by Brian Lewis, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at teams and the most successful teams are the ones with the most\u2026 veterans,\u201d D\u00ebmin said. \u201cBecause they\u2019ve been in those situations a thousand times.\u201d<\/p>\n

He hasn\u2019t been around long, but D\u00ebmin pointed to the Warriors as an example.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have no problem playing and finishing games,\u201d D\u00ebmin said. \u201cThis is something we talked about a couple days ago with Noah and [Day\u2019Ron Sharpe]. Those teams really know what to do. And for us, it\u2019s a good challenge now to learn how to play against those teams \u2026 and being able to accomplish what we need to accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Nets saw another fourth-quarter lead slip away against a good team Tuesday night in Brooklyn, and as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,355,99,5235,21,9,24,63,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-46903","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-nets","11":"tag-brooklyn-news","12":"tag-egor-demin","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46903","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=46903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}