Nets lose their mojo
After winning three of four, energy absent in loss to Sixers
The Nets are likely to finish the season with the worst record in the NBA, but they’ve talked about closing out strong. Tuesday’s 106-101 loss to the 76ers won’t help.
“You never know what it is. Is it focus? Is it fatigue, fighting through a little fatigue? But whatever it is we didn’t have it,’’ coach Kenny Atkinson said. “We did not have the juice from the beginning.”
Maybe it was playing 16 games in 28 days. Or maybe a young team not used to success actually got complacent after winning three of four. Either way, the Nets came out with no fight in front of 15,471 at Barclays Center, and blew a game against a shorthanded Sixers team playing essentially with just seven men.
“We relaxed after winning three of four, and it’s a valuable lesson for us to be able to learn. This league is tough on every single given night,” said Jeremy Lin, who had 11 points, seven assists and six boards, but shot 4-of-14 despite getting open looks all night against the Sixers (28-46).
“And I’ll be the first person to say I didn’t play nearly close to what I’m capable of. So I have to live with that and just get better for the next one. But I definitely feel like if I’d played better, hit some more shots, we wouldn’t be in this position.”
This position is falling be- hind by 10 in the second quarter, rallying to go up 78-72 on Quincy Acy’s free throw with 3:01 left in the third, only to fail to put away the Sixers. The Nets let Philadelphia reel off the last seven points of that third quarter.
With 2:29 to play in the fourth, Lin found rookie Isaiah Whitehead for a corner 3 and a 101-100 lead. But the Sixers’ Robert Covington answered with a layup to put Philadelphia ahead, and the Nets (16-58) went scoreless the rest of the way.
“I don’t think it’s on those last possessions, honestly. We didn’t handle the game the way we should’ve for the entirety of the game,’’ said Brook Lopez, who saw 26 points, nine rebounds and six assists go to waste. “I’m disappointed in ourselves. I think that starts with our leaders, and myself.”
Lopez missed a potential tying 3 down 104-101 with 32.9 seconds left.
“We didn’t have any juice at all,’’ Sean Kilpatrick said. “But that didn’t affect the fact you need to be sharp mentally, and we weren’t there at all.”
The Nets were just 9-47 going into the All-Star break, but a halfway-respectable 7-10 since, including wins in three of their previous four. The Sixers, playing without Joel Embiid, Jahlil Okafor, Jerryd Bayless, Sergio Rodriguez and Ben Simmons, looked ripe for the taking. But the Nets couldn’t take them.
Dario Saric finished with a team-high 23 for Philadelphia, but it was the Nets’ own lack of energy that beat them.