The Nets grapple with an inability to hold late game leads
It’s been challenging for the Nets to string two wins together.
The team last won two in a row a month ago, when they defeated the Detroit Pistons 126-115 at the Barclays Center on December 23 and again in Detroit 118-112 on December 26.
A key reason why the Nets, 17-26 and the No. 11 seed in the Eastern Conference, are 2-11 in their last 13 games going into tonight’s match up at the Barclays Center versus the Minnesota Timberwolves, is their inability to consistently hold late leads and close out games. In three of their last four games, Brooklyn was up in the fourth quarter before falling behind.
The Nets’ troubling trend continued on Tuesday on their home court in Brooklyn when they led the Knicks by nine points in the fourth quarter. But the Knicks were able to get seven of their 11 total offensive rebounds in the final stanza and walked away with a 108-103 win. Mikal Bridges scored 36 points and hit a career-high seven 3-pointers in the loss. Cam Johnson scored 19 while Cam Thomas added 14 off the bench.
“If I was to point to one thing, it was seven offensive rebounds that they had in the fourth,” Brooklyn head coach Jacque Vaughn said after the loss, elaborating that the Knicks’ advantage on the offensive glass and second chance points put more pressure on his team to make shots.
It was Brooklyn’s second consecutive excruciating loss. On Sunday, in the final game of a three-game Western Conference road trip, they led 104-86 over the Los Angeles Clippers with 10:54 left in the contest. The Clippers outscored the Nets 39-10 the rest of the way, including an unanswered 22-0 run in the final 5:33 of the fourth quarter to win 125-114. Bridges again led the team that game with 26 points. Cam Thomas had 20 in his role as sixth man.
Last Friday, in their lone win of the three-game stretch out West, the Nets trailed the Los Angeles Lakers by 11 points late in the second quarter but outscored L.A. 38-22 in the third and came away with a 130-112 victory. Thomas was one of seven Nets in double figures, leading the way with 33 points, while Nic Claxton added 22 points, 14 rebounds and two blocks.
Brooklyn began the three-game road excursion against the Portland Trail Blazers and held a nine-point fourth quarter lead. Bridges led the team with 21 points, while Spencer Dinwiddie added 19 points and dished out seven assists.
Cam Thomas, who played just 22 minutes against the Trailblazers and only 27 versus the Clippers, would like to see more floor time. When asked about Thomas’s minutes, Vaughn said he would love to play the team’s second-leading scorer (20.4 points per game) more.
“The last time we played [the Knicks], we tried Cam Thomas at the one, and I didn’t like the returns on it,” Vaughn said. “I do like having another ball handler out there with Cam. They were blitzing him all night and you know, sometimes we got good looks out of it using his ability to pass out of it. But that’s what it’s going to boil down to.”
The Nets are on a five-game homestand with games versus the Houston Rockets on Saturday, the Utah Jazz on Monday and the Phoenix Suns next Wednesday.
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