Sloppy play vs. Cavs costs B’klyn on night Durant rests
Here’s one thing we know about the Nets: They have three superstar offensive talents.
Here are three more important things to note: They struggle defensively, struggle on the boards, and struggle taking care of the ball.
It’s a recipe for disaster, as evidenced in the Nets’ 125-113 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday. Kevin Durant did not play, but the team’s biggest issues cut deeper than points scored.
“I think the bigger message is that just showing up to the gym is not good enough,” Nets head coach Steve Nash said postgame.
“We are playing people that I think are excited to play and compete against our team. And they’re going to bring it every night and we have to match that.”
DeAndre Jordan struggled. The $40 million man logged just four rebounds in 25 minutes. Jordan got horsed by both Andre Drummond and Jarrett Allen, the ex-Nets center who has now dominated his former team in back-toback games. Allen’s Friday night domination totaled 19 points, including a number of dunks and an alley-oop over James Harden, and the play of the night: a poster dunk over Joe Harris, after which Allen briefly stared at Harris before smiling his way back down the court.
Drummond punished the Nets in the paint, and the Cavaliers ultimately out-rebounded them, 50-29 while scoring 70 points on dunks and layups.
“It is something we have to continue to chip away at. We have to build that resolve, that hunger that desire to win some hustle battles, to win the turnover margin, to win the rebounding margin,” Nash said. “I don’t want to overreact, but we are going to urge the guys to clean up as much as we can the hustle areas. But also, schematically, just continue to refine and get better and you know how this league is.”
Taurean Prince also scored 14 points, with the Cavaliers outsourcing the Nets by 14 in his 22 minutes. The ghosts of Brooklyn’s past haunted the Nets for the second straight game after stuffing the stat sheet in Wednesday’s double-overtime thriller.
The Nets turned the ball over two times in the first half, then gave the ball away eight times in the third quarter alone.
Kyrie Irving was the only player interested in scoring, another sharp performance in a season on pace for the record books. Irving scored 38 points on 14-of-24 shooting from the field. At times, he tried to deny passes to get the rest of his teammates involved in the offense, but the Cavaliers defense smothered those around him, forcing the ball back in and out of Irving’s hands.
Harden was passive and logged 11 assists to go with his 19 points. The Beard only attempted 14 shots, making just six, often dribbling seconds off the clock before launching the ball to a teammate in the corner.
Reminder: Harden does not have the shooters he once had in Houston.
Instead, Landry Shamet shot 0-of-5 from deep, Bruce Brown missed both of his treys, and Harris found a contest on every shot, nailing just two of his seven attempts.
Though shots didn’t fall, offense was not Brooklyn’s problem. The Nets allowed the Cavs to make 52% of their shots. The concept that defense is a so-called switch than can be turned on or off just went out the window.
“We know that won’t work, flipping a switch,” Irving said. “We can’t use our experience. We’ve just really got to take the time to zero in on what we want to accomplish, and we’re playing shorthanded as well just trying to figure it out, so with all that being said, we just want to stay focused on the goal, and every day is used as progress.
“We don’t want to be the flip-the-switch team. We don’t. We want to be the team that’s consistently dominating and we’ll get there.”
Forget about a championship. The Nets couldn’t win a game in Cleveland. They lost once with Durant, then lost again in a far less competitive performance without him.
Nets GM Sean Marks has some questions about his roster to answer, and the issues his team faces transcend its stars. The Nets need to rebound, protect the ball and play some defense.
That starts at the top.
“A few days ago we were on a four game winning streak and now we under performed in two games,” Nash said. “So we’ve got to find a way to get ourselves playing a little cleaner, a little sharper, trying to clean up some of these categories that we’re not competing well enough in.”