BUZZER KILL:
SIXERS SINK NETS ON FINAL OT SHOT
SIXERS 121 NETS 120
PHILADELPHIA — It wasn’t the gamewinning floater from Evan Turner that doomed the Nets to another embarrassing defeat, it was their tepid, lifeless effort.
It was a center, Brook Lopez, who again couldn’t keep the opponent from gobbling up rebounds, and a soft interior defense that allowed the 76ers to roam freely.
Friday night’s 121-120 overtime defeat can be measured by pay rolls. T he Nets own the highest in NBA history. The 76ers have the smallest payroll in the league, by a wide margin.
But too often it feels like the lackadaisical Nets are the ones tanking, and that would be a waste for them as they don’t have a firstround pick.
“We’ve got to be up for everybody. It’s not like we’re walking giants,” Paul Pierce said. “We are bottom-feeders right now just like Philadelphia, so we’ve got to be up for everybody. We don’t have the luxury to come in here and coast and feel like we can come into the fourth quarter and turn it up.”
The Nets (9-17) are on a cycle with their excuses, starting every postgame with Jason Kidd. If it’s not the injuries, it’s the effort. If it’s not the missed open shots, it’s the lack of communication on defense.
They preached progress during a stretch of four wins in five games that started last week, but followed that with a defeat Wednesday to the Wizards and Friday’s gut-punch against the 76ers (8-19).
Turner, who scored a game-high 29 points, drove through the lane and hit his floater over two defenders, watching as the ball bounced three times off the rim before falling in to snap Philly’s seven-game losing streak. Pierce, who continued his hot streak with 24 points in 44 minutes, had hit a 3-pointer with 16.7 seconds remaining to give Brooklyn a one-point advantage before’s Turner’s dramatics.
“I mean I don’t think anybody expected this,” said Deron Williams, who had 17 points and 14 assists, but missed the potential game-winner at the end of regulation. “We keep talking about that.
“I don’t think anybody could imagine us having the record that we have right now, talking about the things that we’re having to talk about every game. It’s baffling to me. At some point we have to just say enough is enough.”
Finally, after most of the Nets pussy-footed around the subject for two days, Pierce blasted the big men for Brooklyn being outrebounded 49-36. And on a night when Kevin Garnett was given a rest day, the frontline is mostly about Lopez, the 7-footer who grabbed seven boards in 44 minutes Friday to actually raise his average to about six per game. “It’s just inexcusable right now, one of the biggest teams in the league, for us to get crushed on the glass every night,” Pierce said.
Lopez left without speaking to the media. He also scored 22 points on 9-of-19 from the floor, as the Nets were outscored in the paint 66-30. This was two days after the Nets had been hammered on the glass in a loss to the Wizards.
“It’s just one thing. Effort. One thing. That’s what basketball is built on. Effort,” Kidd said, adding later, “Reality has set in: we can’t rebound and we can’t protect the paint.”
Just four days earlier, the Nets had blasted the Sixers by 36 points in Brooklyn. Friday was a different story. The Nets, as Pierce said, are nothing more than expensive bottom-feeders.