The ugly truth
Raptors hand Nets 9th straight loss
The decision-making was poor and the shot selection worse. And when it was over — after they had turned the ball over early and often — the Nets suffered a 103-95 defeat to the shorthanded, struggling Raptors on Sunday at Barclays Center.
The Nets (9-42) have lost nine consecutive games, and a dozen straight at home. Yes, All-Star Kyle Lowry had a triple-double with 15 points, 11 boards and 11 assists, while Jonas Valanciunas had 22 points, including eight in Toronto’s pivotal 17-2 run, but the Nets threw this one away as much as the Raptors (31-21) won it.
“To the turnover situation in the first half, I’ll add bad shot selection. It’s just that simple,’’ coach Kenny Atkinson said. “We took a lot of bad shots, a lot of quick shots and we were driving into a crowd a lot. The ball wasn’t moving side-to-side and then a drive when there’s an open hole. A lot of these turnovers are decisions, and our decision-making wasn’t up to par in the first half.
“The shot selection was particularly disappointing. We’ve done a pretty good job of that all year, taking the right type of shots. [Sunday] we got caught in some bad situations, some bad decisions.”
The results were bad, too. The Nets committed 22 turnovers to hand the Raptors 25 points, while they forced just 12 and scored just 12 points off of them. They had 16 turnovers and just 14 baskets after a first half that saw them trail 55-43.
And this was against a Toronto team that had lost eight of 10 since beating the Nets on Jan. 17. On Sunday, Patrick Patterson and All-Star DeMar DeRozan sat out with knee injuries and Lowry played despite flu-like symptoms. It didn’t matter given the way the Nets played.
“We take bad shots, or we sit there and take contested jump shots,’’ said Sean Kilpatrick, who had 18 points.
“You’ve got to be selfless in that case. You’ve got to make the extra pass knowing who’s open. ... If you see someone who’s just constantly running at you at the 3-point line, then one of your teammates is open. That’s something we have to make a conscious and mindful decision of. Everyone on this team can score, but it’s a matter of are you going to take less shots for the next man in line? That’s something we didn’t do.”
Kilpatrick and Bojan Bogdanovic had five turnovers each, and Brook Lopez had four, his two biggest during Toronto’s 17-2 spurt. The Nets were down 38-36 when Lopez, who scored a teamhigh 20 points, picked up two offensive fouls in just over a minute, going to the bench with three personals. Kilpatrick’s 3 gave them a one-point lead with 4:43 left in the half, but it was the last lead they would have.
“I was definitely frustrated,’’ Lopez said. “If it happened again and maybe if one of our guys out there actually watched the play he wouldn’t make that call. But that’s the way it went.”
The Nets missed six shots and had four turnovers in Toronto’s game-sealing run, Valanciunas having his way with Lopez out. DeMarre Carroll’s 3 padded the lead to 55-41. It was 81-65 in the fourth when the Nets made a 15-3 run, Bogdanovic’s layup getting them within 84-80 with 5:23 left. But they got no closer.