Nash questions pride on ‘D’ in loss to Thunder
THUNDER 129
NETS 116
The Nets’ defensive issues continued, and their offense did not explode. With Kevin Durant back in the rotation, but still no Kyrie Irving (personal reasons), the Nets lost to the Thunder, 129-116, on Sunday night.
It is yet another loss to a team with significantly less star power, a trend that has woven through several of the Nets’ six losses on the season. The Nets have lost to the Grizzlies twice, the Hornets, Hawks, Wizards and now Thunder. Their victories have come against the Warriors, Celtics, 76ers and Jazz, and Hawks, too.
“It’s just pride. No matter what defense you’re in, you got to sit down and guard someone, and we didn’t guard tonight,” Nash said. “That’s got to be it. You can get beat. You can have a hard time guarding someone, but I didn’t sense the pride. I didn’t sense the competitive fire in the second half. I thought it was a lack of respect. We’ve just got to learn from this and get better.”
The Nets built a 15-point second-quarter lead, but when the offense faltered, the defense didn’t pick up the slack. The Thunder, led by third-year guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, hung 99 points in the first three quarters. Gilgeous-Alexander scored 29 points on 10-of-15 shooting, leading the Thunder to an early 5-4 record.
Nets center Jarrett Allen said he saw the game start to take a turn toward the end of the first quarter.
“We just had a lot of turnovers in a row. We were just throwing the ball carelessly,” said Allen, who finished with 15 points, 10 rebounds and a block, but turned the ball over three times. “We stopped playing defense a little bit, we weren’t as locked in. You could see it toward the end of the first quarter, probably that last minute, and then the beginning of the second quarter, they just came out playing their game. So that little instant, that’s when we let them have it.”
The defense had few answers for Gilgeous-Alexander, who also finished with seven assists and two steals. It was equally ineffective stopping the rest of the Thunder; the team shot 54% from the field and made 15 of 39 attempts from behind the arc.
“He was talking all through the game letting us know that we were not doing our job,” Caris LeVert said of Nash. “He was telling us all game, he told us at halftime. We just never made that adjustment as players.”
Durant returned after missing three games due to the NBA’s contact tracing protocol, and was aggressive, scoring 36 points on 11-of-21 shooting from deep. The Nets, as a team, also shot 50% from the field, with Caris LeVert going for 21 and Taurean Prince coming off the bench to score 11.
Despite Durant’s attempt at late-game heroics, the Nets just could not get a stop down the stretch. Nash emptied his bench at the 2:15 mark.
“It might be. I hope it’s not. This is going to be a very unique season,” Nash said of the idea his team is playing down to its opponents. “Everyone is getting beat by everybody, and it’s really important that we respect our opponents. We got up 15, and we played like we felt the game was over. That’s just got to change. We’ve got to learn from it. We’ve got to toughen up and show a little pride.”
The Nets turned the ball over 17 times, with Durant accounting for four.
The Nets continue to miss Irving, who has missed the last three games. They have also been without Spencer Dinwiddie (ACL), the starting shooting guard whose absence the Nets have struggled to fill.
The Nets have again fallen back below-.500 with a 5-6 record.
Practice time is limited in the shortened season, so the Nets will likely have a film session today before preparing for their upcoming back-to-back. They host the Nuggets, led by Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, on Tuesday before traveling to the Garden for a showdown against the Knicks.