Dead give away
20 turnovers do in sloppy Nets in Motown
DETROIT — The Nets will go into the trade deadline hurting, and are headed toward the All-Star break slumping. Their own turnovers were the culprit Wednesday, as they handed away a 115-106 loss to the Pistons before 15,114 at Little Caesars Arena.
The shorthanded Nets (19-37), who have lost four straight and eight of nine, were battered by Detroit’s frontcourt of Andre Drummond (17 points, 27 rebounds) and Blake Griffin (25 points, 11 in the fourth quarter). In the end, however, the 20 turnovers they committed are what they rued as they flew back to Brooklyn.
“One thing you have to do is, on the road you have to value the ball. We gave it away to many times. It’s frustrating,” coach Kenny Atkinson said. “They had 24 points off our turnovers, it’s just giving it away. You can’t do that on the road.”
They really did give this one away. Allen Crabbe had 19 of his career-high 34 points in the fourth quarter, and Joe Harris added 18 points, but the Nets wasted it.
With guard Caris LeVert out, the Nets couldn’t hold on to the ball. Point guard D’Angelo Russell, still out of sync as he works his way back following knee surgery, committed six of those turnovers and contributed just four points and five assists.
“Lack of concentration, fatigue, I don’t know. But at the end of the day we just can’t turn the ball over,” DeMarre Carroll said. “We especially can’t turn it over at the point-guard position.”
Carroll and Harris have had their names floated in trade rumors with the deadline looming at 3 p.m. Thursday, although a source told The Post there didn’t appear to be any movement on Carroll.
With both Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (groin) and Quincy Acy (finger) out, the 6-foot-8, 215-pound Carroll had to battle with Griffin, who is 6-10, 251 pounds. Carroll notched a double-double (14 points, 12 boards), but got into foul trouble. The Nets got so desperate they gave persona non grata Timofey Mozgov his first minutes since Jan. 10.
The Nets trailed 59-57 with just under nine minutes left in the third quarter when they let the Pistons reel off eight unanswered points. Spencer Dinwiddie (12 points, 11 assists) had a rare turnover to lead to Ish Smith’s driving layup for a 67-57 Detroit lead. The Nets spent the rest of the night scaling the mountain only to tumble back down.
Down 70-60, they Nets mounted an 11-2 run, capped by Russell’s sublime bounce pass to Crabbe to get them within 72-71. But they followed that by giving up a 7-0 run.
With the Nets trailing 89-78, Crabbe answered by scoring all his team’s points on a 10-2 run. He hit a floater, a pair of corner 3s and a long 2-point shot to lift the Nets within 91-88. The Nets got the deficit to three points on three different occasions (the last at 102-99 on Harris’ 3 with three minutes left), but no closer.
“I hope [that run] releases Allen, because that’s the Allen we want, more aggressive, more assertive,” Atkinson said.
“I made some shots finally,” Crabbe said. “Coach [Chris] Fleming talks to me a lot. He’s one of the biggest guys preaching to me about being aggressive, just going out there and don’t worry about mistakes, missed shots, because nobody’s going to take you out if I do either one; just finding ways to get going.”
LeVert suffered not only a concussion Tuesday on a hard screen by the Rockets’ Nene, but also a knee injury.
“He’s still under concussion protocol. … We’re still evaluating the knee to see where we are with that. Hopefully it’s not too bad,” said Atkinson, coy about whether the Nets had talked to the NBA about the screen being dirty. “It’s a referee’s decision. The league looks at that. I’ll be interested to see what they come back with.”
A source confirmed there had been no buyout talks for Mozgov, but admitted the veteran center wasn’t happy about logging 14 straight games in which he did not play.