The Brooklyn Nets traded the lead with the Washington Wizards 11 times in the fourth quarter alone, and 20 times on the night, but came up empty on their final possession as Thomas Bryant’s dunk with 14.9 seconds remaining stood up as the final lead change to give the Wizards a 123-122 win at Barclays Center.
It was the fourth loss in five games for Brooklyn, two of them single-possession games and another in overtime, but the results have left the Nets with a 3-4 record two weeks into a season that began with consecutive 20-point wins.
“I think there’s a pattern. I think we’re making simple mistakes defensively,” said Nets coach Steve Nash. “Not sticking to our game plan as well as we can, and from the treetops, that’s probably somewhat to be expected. Would we like to clean it up quicker, we would, and without a lot of practice time, playing 17 games in 31 days this month, we’ve got to figure out a way to get that done. So, just simple mistakes defensively. Talking. Recognizing scenarios and situations, and then the offensive rebounding, the turnovers, those are problems for us. And I think the turnovers, we’re going to be a team that going to turn it over a little bit maybe more than average, but tonight was exceptionally high. The rebounding is a problem. For me, those are the three areas; simple defensive lapses, offensive rebounding, and turnovers.”
Nash described Brooklyn’s 20 turnovers as “uncharacteristic,” but combined with a lingering issue in allowing offensive rebounds, it added up to the Wizards taking 104 shots compared to Brooklyn’s 81. Washington turned 13 offensive rebounds into 17 second-chance points and turned Brooklyn’s 20 turnovers into another 23 points.
“They shot 41 percent and they took 23 more shots than us,” said Nash. “It’s tough to win when a team gets 23 more shots. Second-chance points, a lot of those are layups. I thought even more glaring than the rebounds tonight was the turnovers; 20 turnovers for 23 points, that’s tough. We can see all those things and we had two looks at it to win the game, two good looks. Didn’t go down, and maybe that’s just in that we’ve got to clean a lot of things up.”
The Nets shot 49.3 percent overall and 43.8 percent from 3-point range while getting double-doubles from Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, and Jarrett Allen.
Irving had 30 points on 10-of-20 shooting, made all eight of his free throws, and had 10 assists and five rebounds.
Durant scored 28 on 8-of-15 shooting with 11 rebounds and seven assists. Allen had 14 points and 11 rebounds. Joe Harris added 16 points and shot 4-of-8 from 3-point range and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot had 14 while making 4-of-5 3-pointers.
Brooklyn led 71-70 at halftime after a big close to the second quarter. The Wizards were up by nine, 47-38, before the Nets got rolling. Starting with a Durant 3-pointer, Brooklyn made seven straight shots — including three 3-pointers — on the way to tying the game on a Luwawu-Cabarrot 3-pointer. Another Harris 3-pointer made it eight straight makes for Brooklyn.
With Washington leading 68-64, the Nets got a three-point play from Durant and then an Irving pull-up jumper for the lead, followed by a Caris LeVert transition dunk that made it 71-68.
Over the final seven minutes of the half, the Nets shot 13-for-16, including 4-for-5 from 3-point range. They shot 52.3 percent overall and 56.3 percent from 3-point range, led by 20 first-half points from Irving, who also had eight assists at the break as the Nets assisted on 18 of their 23 first-half field goals.
Brooklyn’s first three makes of the second half were 3-pointers, two from Luwawu-Cabarrot and another from Durant, as they went up 80-76 three minutes into the third quarter. Five straight points from Durant had Brooklyn up 85-80, but Washington answered with a 14-2 run to go up 94-87 with three minutes to go in the quarter.
But the Nets closed with six straight points, first with Irving dishing to a rolling Allen, and then getting the final four himself on a short fading jumper and two free throws, making it a 94-83 Washington lead going into the fourth quarter.
The Nets and Wizards traded scores to open the fourth quarter before a 9-2 burst put Washington up 107-101 with seven minutes to go.
With the Nets down by four, Harris hit a corner three and Durant made a pair from the line for a 119-118 lead with 1:56 remaining. Washington’s Rui Hachimura made 1-of-2 free throws to tie the game at 119.
Durant followed by making 1-of-2 as well for a 120-119 lead with 1:21 to go. Washington’s Bradley Beal scored in a crowd in the paint for a 121-120 lead as the clock ticked under 60 seconds. With just under 30 seconds to go, Durant collared a Wizards miss and found Luwawu-Cabarrot up ahead of the field for a layup and a 122-121 Nets lead, but Bryant’s dunk put Washington ahead for good.
“Plenty to clean up. It’s early,” said Nash. “We can’t lose our minds over it and we can’t get overly frustrated. We can’t feel too much tension. There’s a lot of really good teams that are trying to find themselves, and we’re new. We’ve got a first-time head coach, we’ve got a new staff, and we’ve got a bunch of guys that haven’t played together. With a short training camp, that made it difficult, and here we are in a little struggle and you know what? It’s good for us. It’s good to get a little tension. We’ve got to get comfortable being uncomfortable, so here we are. We’re a little uncomfortable, and it can help us grow.”
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Wizards 123, Nets 122: Triple-Doubles for Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Jarrett Allen - Brooklynnets.com
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