Nets less than sum of parts
Finally whole after two months of injuries, the Nets tipped off a five-game gauntlet Tuesday against Utah. It didn’t go as planned.
They got tuned up by the Jazz 118-107, beaten soundly before 15,381 at Barclays Center.
“What you saw backs up their stellar play recently. They’ve No. 1 offense over the last 15 or 20 games and we could never find way to stop them. Just that simple,” coach Kenny Atkinson said. “Transition defense, pickand-roll defense, rebounding, physicality, they just dominated.”
The Nets wasted a double-double from Kyrie Irving, who had 32 points and 11 assists — both gamehighs — in his second outing since a two-month layoff for shoulder woes. But it went for naught.
Down by just two, the Nets allowed a 14-2 run to end the first half. They went into the locker room down by 14, and saw that deficit swell to 20 early in the third quarter.
“When we have moments like we had where we give up the run they went on the second quarter, it takes the wind out of your sails a little bit,” Irving said. “You’ve got to come out in the second half ready to climb uphill, and they didn’t let us.”
Irving, Spencer Dinwiddie and Caris LeVert logged eight minutes on the floor together and were a plus-2. With just 38 minutes on the floor together this season, getting that trio in sync is vital.
“We’ve just got to figure out how to play better off one another when we’re out there on the perimeter,” Irving said.
Despite Joe Ingles coming in averaging just 10.8 points, he lit the Nets up for 27 on 6 of 8 shooting from deep. Rudy Gobert had 22 and a game-high 18 rebounds, taking it to a too-passive Jarrett Allen (eight points, two boards).
By the time it was done, Utah (28-12) had won its league-best 10th in a row. Now the Nets play in Philadelphia on Wednesday before hosting NBA-leading Milwaukee, the 76ers in a rematch and the West-leading Lakers.
“Mentally we’ve got to be prepared because we played a tough one,” said LeVert, who had 11 points. “Philly’s a good team and obviously they have a great crowd, it’s just going in there mentally prepared and we’ll do a good job.”
The Nets ran Dinwiddie, LeVert and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot at Donovan Mitchell, holding him to 11 points on 3 of 13 shooting through three quarters before he shook loose for 14 in the fourth.
Dinwiddie finished with 17 points while Joe Harris added 13. But they shot just 60 percent from the freethrow line, let Utah hit 50 percent from the floor and now have four more nasty games looming.
The game was up in the air, until Utah seized it.
The Nets trailed just 45-43 after a Taurean Prince driving layup with 4:58 remaining in the opening half. But they imploded from there.
The Nets shot just 1-for-11 over the rest of the second quarter to let the game slip away. They surrendered three Ingles 3s in a 14-2 Jazz run to close the half.
Mitchell opened the second half with a 3-pointer, and the Jazz steadily increased their lead. By the time Ingles drilled a 3, the Nets found themselves in a 76-56 hole. It proved far too deep to dig their way out of, despite the benefit of a momentum-killing shot clock malfunction.
After a five-minute delay, the Nets went on a run and pulled within 82-69. A Rodions Kurucs 3 got them to 83-72, and an Irving fade made it 99-91 in the fourth, but no closer.
Irving vowed to play in Philadelphia, despite admitting that overwork early in the season led to his shoulder woes.
“I had to make up that time,” Irving said. “That’s what attributed to be having my shoulder impingement just really trying to make up lost time. Now where I am it’s just trying to stay evenkeeled, be as healthy as I can be and just be with these guys and get better.”