Closing Time
Skidding Nets search for finishing touch
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Nets will strive to break their maddening habit of late-game collapses. And they’re going to have to do it amid a three-game road swing, where they’re just 2-7 this season.
“It’s very important. Nobody wants to lose,” forward DeMarre Carroll said. “It’s one of those things we’ve still got to stick together, try to fight this thing out.
“At the end of the day we’re playing good basketball. We’ve just got to somehow — sooner rather than later — learn how to close out games, learn how to not relax toward the end of the game. We play a great game all the way to the last five minutes of every game. We’ve got to figure that out, and figure it out quickly.”
They don’t have a lot of time. The Nets have dropped three straight and 10 of their past 13 going into Sunday’s game against the Grizzlies. Then come Monday’s game at Western Conference-leading Houston and Wednesday at Dallas.
“It’s very important,” Caris LeVert said. “We play in a league where you play every other day, so we get to shake this off and compete again. We’ve got a couple games coming up where we feel like we can win, so we’ve got to play the right way.”
“It’s tough,” Carroll said. “Tough teams. Either we’re going to learn and get it, or keep losing at the end of the game, saying what if, what if?
“But until we get it, we’re going to have days like [Friday’s two-point home loss to Portland], and have sad locker rooms like this. I think we’ll get it sooner rather than later.”
Brooklyn has seen too many sad locker rooms after late-game implosions.
The Nets fought out of a 28-point third-quarter hole against the defending champion Warriors to get within four with 2½ minutes to play, only to run out of time. Then they were deadlocked with 4:50 left at Cleveland, only to see LeBron James score 18 points in a 20-10 game-ending run for the three-time East champion Cavaliers.
Finally came their Black Friday failure, blowing a sixpoint lead with 2:06 remaining in losing 127-125 to the Trail Blazers.
Friday’s loss, however, is typical of how the NBA is played. On that same night, Cleveland edged Charlotte by a point, Detroit beat Oklahoma City by the same margin, and Indiana defeated Toronto by 3. Games often come down to the last shot, almost always are decided in the final minutes, and young rebuilding teams struggle until they learn to close.
“It’s tough. That’s why it’s so hard in this league,” Joe Harris said. “Night-in and night-out, in the league you’ve got to be able to execute down the stretch and win close games. We haven’t proven that here in these last three games.”
Maybe the fourth time will be the charm, Sunday against a floundering 7-11 Grizzlies team that has lost seven straight and 10 of 12.
“We’re still just trying to figure it out. It’s still early in the season, but at some point I think it’ll turn. It’s not like we’re getting blown out. We’re having chances to win, but we’re just not closing it out. But I feel like with the experience we’re getting, we’ll turn it around,” Allen Crabbe said.
“It’s also a positive experience for us,” coach Kenny Atkinson said. “We can look at this, we can say ‘How can we close out games? What can we do better? How can we execute better? What can we do defensively differently to close out games?’
“So that’s on all of us: The coaching staff too, not just the players. So that’s a good point, closing games is a next step for us.”