THE JAZZ STINGER
Kyrie & Co. blow 15-point lead to lose heartbreaker in Utah JAZZ 119 NETS 114
SALT LAKE CITY — The Nets’ non-effort Sunday in Phoenix was an embarrassment. Their loss Tuesday in Utah was a heartbreaker.
Brooklyn fixed its first-quarter woes, shored up its defense and played far better than it had two days earlier, but it still blew big second-half leads and fell 119-114 to the Jazz at Vivent Smart Home Arena.
The Nets led by 15 points to start the third quarter, eight to open the fourth and 112-110 with under two minutes left. But they coughed up a 9-2 run to close the game, falling to 4-6.
“We are where we are. We’re 4-6. We’re below average,” Kenny Atkinson said. “There’s things to build on. Our defense has to improve for us to take another step, [but] 4-6 is 4-6. This league is unrelenting. We are below average, I think our guys understand that.
“I do think we’re building something with the new group. I don’t feel, ‘Oh, you know we’re not together.’ I feel good about our group, I feel good about our process, I feel good about our system, I feel good about our players. These are tough games. The Utahs, the Denvers on the road. I like the way we competed.”
The Suns loss was about competitiveness, or lack thereof. Tuesday was about endgame execution.
Kyrie Irving had 27 points, but shot just 10-of-30. He had just five points on 2-of-11 in a fourth quarter that saw the Nets outscored 35-22.
“They played [well], execution down the stretch, made some hustle plays off my misses down the stretch, a few turnovers,” said Irving, who saw the Jazz run different defenders at him all night to wear him out. In the end, it worked.
“I could’ve done a better job of calling different plays down the stretch other than me and [DeAndre Jordan] in the middle of the floor, especially when it got inside three minutes.”
Jordan (gamehigh 17 rebounds) scored on a putback of an Irving miss to give the Nets a 112-110 lead with 3:26 to play. But they missed nine of their last 10 shots, including 0-for-6 by Irving.
Meanwhile, Utah’s stars played like it down the stretch. Donovan Mitchell (game-high 30 points) hit a floater to tie it and Rudy Gobert (18 points, 15 boards) a layup for the lead with 1:31 left.
Jordan tied it at 114-all on a tip-in, but Gobert scored on a putback. When Irving missed a floater with 39.1 seconds left and then a 3 with 7.6 seconds remaining in regulation, Gobert’s rebound and Mike Conley’s ensuing free throws ensured there would be no overtime. “There are no moral victories. We had our opportunities,” Atkinson said. “There are a few things; we could’ve made a few more plays, quite honestly, both offensively and defensively. It’s such a fine line between winning and losing.”
The Nets will rue a pair of runs that squandered this one.
They had closed the first half on an Irving-led 11-3 run to take a 68-53 lead into the locker room. But they went 0-for-5 with four turnovers to surrender 13 unanswered points, exNet Bojan Bogdanonic’s dunk pulling Utah within 68-66.
Irving answered with a 3, and they padded it back to 92-84 to end the third. But ex-Knick Emmanuel Mudiay’s drive capped a 10-2 Jazz run to knot it at 94-all. The rest was back-and-forth, and with Caris LeVert hurt and Jarrett Allen fouled out, Utah tipped the scales last.
“They came out made tough shots, we didn’t execute. … We just have to come out and have a better start to the third quarter, weather the storm,” said Jordan, not panicking over the slow start.
“We talk a lot but we’re not ready for our team meeting. It’s too early for that [crap]. … We’re not panicking. It’s going to take awhile. I don’t know how long it’s going to take, 15 games, 20 games. We know it’s a process.”