Ghosts of seasons past
Old pitfalls haunt Nets in opening loss in Motown
DETROIT — New season. Same Achilles’ heel.
The shorthanded Nets suffered a season-opening 103-100 loss to the Pistons, and the same flaws that cost them last year did so once more.
They couldn’t rebound. They couldn’t stave off a huge run. And they couldn’t pull out a nailbiter. Again.
“They made the biggest run, the start of the third. That’s the difference in the game. Something that we’re going to get better at. We fought back, played well, etc., etc., etc., sort of the story of last season. We didn’t get it done,” Spencer Dinwiddie said. “We’ve got to figure out and take the next step and finally get it done.
“Obviously there was a lot of stuff: taking the next step, fighting back from the big run, not letting it get out of hand and all those things. But I think everybody in this locker room wants to be a good team, wants to win, so I ain’t really for all that rahrah stuff. We lost. Figure it out. We’re not here for moral victories.”
Dinwiddie had 23 points and six assists off the bench, including 10 points in a fourth quarter in which starter D’Angelo Russell didn’t get off the bench. Caris LeVert poured in a game-high 27 points, and Jarrett Allen added 17 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks. But it all fell just short.
But that’s what happens when you go small to space the floor and end up not only watching Andre Drummond beat you up for 24 points and 20 rebounds, but shoot just 5-of-27 yourself from 3-point range.
“We had our opportunities with open shots,” coach Kenny Atkinson said. “We had our chances. That’s all you can ask for, on the road, tough team. We just didn’t close it out.”
That’s what happens when you not only capitulate on the boards but collapse in the third quarter.
“The third quarter, that’s where we lost it,” Atkinson said.
“You could tell they came out with more energy than us,” Allen said. “They came out on the glass attacking us and we just almost crumbled.”
LeVert’s free throws gave Brooklyn — which had led by as much as a dozen in the first quarter — a 56-53 edge early in the third. But the Nets surrendered a 20-4 run to fall behind by a baker’s dozen. Blake Griffin (26 points) helped spark the run and Reggie Jackson (19 points) capped it with a 30-footer to make it 73-60, sending the crowd into a frenzy and the Nets into a timeout.
Brooklyn eventually got Drummond in foul trouble and took advantage by driving out of its five-out offense. The Nets climbed within 83-76 after three, and took leads of 92-91 on LeVert’s short floater and 94-93 on his pass to Allen for a layup.
But three straight Detroit baskets. including a pair of putbacks by Drummond, turned the game once and for all. He sandwiched a pair of layups around one by Blake Griffin, and the Nets trailed 99-94 with two minutes remaining.
Joe Harris, off all night, hit a left-corner 3 to pull them within 101-100 with 1:20 left. But that’s as close as it got.
LeVert turned the ball over with 7.8 seconds to play, and Jackson’s free throws 1.6 seconds later essentially sealed it. Harris’ miss at the buzzer made it official.
“[They] made a great play on the ball. If I could take it back I probably would’ve slowed down, brought it out a little bit. They made a great play on the ball, deflected it,” LeVert said. “It was a lot of bodies in there. I probably would’ve slowed down, brought it out and got the last shot.”