The Nets had a red-hot first quarter and a halftime lead. Then the third quarter happened, when they embarrassed themselves again. Brooklyn couldn’t buy a basket on offense, couldn’t get a stop on defense. And when it was over, the Nets had another third-quarter collapse and a 108-98 loss to Portland.
Oh, and plenty of blame to go around.
“Just bad coaching: I take the blame for this. The guys played hard, we got a little stagnant on the offensive end, so this falls on my shoulders,” coach Jason Kidd said. “We got off to a good start, and in the third quarter we came out a little flat. That falls on me. If we don’t score we’ve got to play the other side, and tonight that falls on me not having guys ready to play.’’
Shaun Livingston — who had a team-high 23 points filling in for injured Deron Williams — said the players have to look in the mirror.
“We still have to leave it out there. You’ve got to go out and play hard. Coach can’t coach effort. We’ve got to go out there and all do our job as a man,’’ said Livingston.
“[He’s] taking responsibility. … It’s on all of us, me as well. I take a majority of that. As the point guard you’ve got to initiate the offense, make the right play calls to get guys involved. Maybe that’s a time I should be more aggressive getting into the paint, drawing fouls, getting free throws to pick our momentum back up.’’
They scored 40 points on 73.7 percent shooting in the first quarter, and led 63-56 at the break before Portland blew past them in the third quarter. The Nets shot just 3-of-18 and got outscored 27-15, imploding at a sold-out Barclays Center.
“We didn’t make shots like we did early. But at the same time, defensively we let them get comfortable,’’ said Jason Terry. “For us, it’s a struggle. We’ve got to get healthy, got to find a consistency to what we’re doing on both ends of the floor. Until that happens, we’re going to continue to struggle. We figured it out; we’ve got to play hard, we know that.’’
It was the first time since the Heat on Feb. 1, 2012 (at Milwaukee) a team failed to reach 100 after a 40-point first quarter, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. But the third quarter has been Brooklyn’s Achilles’ heel all season, and it was again Monday.
The Nets are 3-0 when they outscore their foes in the third, 0-7 when they don’t. They’ve been outscored in the third by a total of 55 points in those losses, including Monday when they settled for missed contested jumper after missed contested jumper.
“That’s where we have to make adjustments,’’ said Livingston. “We’re all veterans out there on the floor. That’s where we need to make adjustments, get the ball in the paint, get it moving around a little bit more.
“We’re in it. We’re in a struggle right now. It’s a grind. We all have to be in it together, that’s the main thing. We can’t be one foot in and one foot out. We can’t be front-runners. There’s still the majority of the season left.’’