The Brooklyn Nets scored 146 points on Sunday night and still managed to lose a basketball game to the NBA’s worst team.
One hundred and forty-six.
That’s because they allowed the Washington Wizards to score 149 points, including six during a span of 3.8 seconds during crunch time. The Wizards have four wins this season — four — and half of them are against the Nets.
With their shiny new “Big 3” of James Harden, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, Nets rank third in the league in offensive efficiency, but a miserable 25th in defensive efficiency.
The defending NBA champion Lakers rank first, the 76ers, the No. 1 seed in the East, rank fourth, and the Clippers, who have their own designs on an NBA title, rank 13th.
The Nets don’t have to feature a top-5 defense, or even a top-10 defense, but they sure as heck can’t have one of the league’s worst and hope to compete for a title.
“Their offense as we know is one of the most efficient offenses of all time, but their defense is one of the worst efficient defenses of all time,” Grant Hill, a seven-time NBA All-Star, said on NBA TV after Sunday’s game.
“And that recipe is not good for obvious reasons. You have the offensive firepower to go out and close games. You have three of the best closers, three of the best fourth-quarter producers in their “Big 3,” but defensively they’re going to have to figure this out. They have championship aspirations. You expect some improvement at this point in the season and they just haven’t been able to get it done.”
The Nets have allowed 109 points in 13 of their last 14 games, the lone exception coming in a 98-85 win over Miami on Jan. 25. During that span, they have lost games in which they’ve scored 110, 116, 135, 113, and 146 points.
The Nets have lost games this season when scoring 135 and 146 points. Think about that.
On Sunday, they appeared to have the game in control going down the stretch despite Russell Westbrook and Bradley Beal combining for 78 points. But they blew a five-point lead in the final 12.3 seconds and allowed the Wizards to score six points in 3.8 seconds, including three-pointer by Westbrook with 4.3 clicks left to give the Wizards their first lead of the second half.
“We had that game,” Irving said on a Zoom call. “It should’ve been ours. So we just look at ourselves in the mirror and see what we can correct as individuals and as a group, especially on effort. I couldn’t guard a stick today. Those guys were just going right around me, and I was getting frustrated a little bit.”
Head coach Steve Nash has been talking about the team’s need for improved defense for weeks now. The team has signed shot-blocking big man Norvel Pelle and defensive-minded wing Iman Shumpert in an effort to shore up the defense, but they didn’t play Sunday.
“It didn’t mean enough to get stops,” Nash said. “Maybe we thought we had it in the bag, but too many times we let them waltz down the lane and get layups. We just let our foot off the gas, thought we were going to win, and that’s a dangerous game to play.”
The Nets lost despite two players — Kevin Durant (37) and Joe Harris (30) — scoring 30+ points and two others — Irving (26) and Jeff Green (23)— scoring 20+. Harden did not play due to a thigh contusion, that Nash said is not “too severe.”
The final blow came when Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot missed a layup in the final seconds off an in-bounds pass from Harris.
“It was just a dumb mistake on my part,” Harris said. “I was trying to get the ball out quick and get it to Kevin, and it was one of those things where he was cutting to the rim and I was throwing the ball where I thought he was going to be going.”
The Nets will turn around and host Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and the Clippers on Tuesday, after the Clippers put up 129 points on the Knicks Sunday at Madison Square Garden.
If the Nets want to eventually be a serious contender in the Eastern Conference and come playoff time, they’re going to have to commit to defense.
“You’re not going to outscore teams if you want to win championships,” Hill said.
“The defense has to improve. You don’t have to be a top-10 defensive team, but they just have to be average. If they can be average, then they have the chance this season to do something really special.”
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