ORLANDO, Fla. — As the final seconds ticked off the clock Sunday night, Jason Kidd sat silent with his hands together, staring out onto the court.
This wasn’t the debut he was hoping for.
In his first game as coach, the Nets fell apart in the second half and eventually lost 107-86 to the Magic in front of 15,297 inside Amway Center.
It was clear from the opening tip the Nets had nowhere near the same level of energy they did in Friday’s 101-100 win over the Heat, and that — combined with a dreadful shooting performance — was too much to overcome.
“Absolutely,” said Kevin Garnett when asked if the Nets suffered a letdown. “We’ve got to be consistent with the passion. … We can’t pick and choose who we want to play.
“This is a learning lesson. We’re still growing, still building, but effort can’t be taught. It’s what’s in you.”
It wasn’t in the Nets Sunday night, as the young, athletic Magic ran circles around them all game long. Despite the Nets being one of the biggest teams in the league, Orlando dominated the boards, outrebounding the Nets 54-42 as they were led by double-doubles for Nikola Vucevic (19 points and 12 rebounds) and Andrew Nicholson (17 points and 11 rebounds).
The Nets (1-2), meanwhile, couldn’t hit a shot, finishing a dreadful 34-for-89 (38.2 percent) from the field and having just two players — Brook Lopez with 21 points and Paul Pierce with 16 — finish in double figures. As the game progressed it appeared the Nets let their lack of offensive execution impact their effort defensively, something they acknowledged afterward.
“We can’t let our offense dictate our defense,” Kidd said. “If you want to be an elite team, some nights the ball isn’t going to go in, but you can always give effort and execute on the defensive end, and tonight we just didn’t do that.”
After the Nets managed to end the first half trailing 41-38 despite their offensive woes, things fell apart early in the third quarter. Orlando started the second half on a 17-4 run and never looked back, led by rookie Victor Oladipo scoring 14 of his 19 points after halftime.
“We didn’t come out with the right energy in the third quarter,” Pierce said. “They made a run and really never looked back. After we settled for jumper, settled for jumper. We didn’t get the ball inside and kind of demoralized, I felt, on the defensive end.
“We didn’t rebound the ball and just was like, it was like a [trickle-down] effect.”
The game was far from the kind of performance the Nets hoped to have for Kidd in his debut, after he spent the first two games of the season serving a suspension for pleading guilty to driving while ability impaired.
Beforehand, Kidd tried to downplay the significance of the occasion, saying it was just another day at the office.
“There are really no emotions,” Kidd said. “This is basketball for me, and the guys, they’ve been doing it since we’ve been at Duke [for training camp], so for me it’s just to give them the plan and help them while they’re out there.”
It was a performance that looked eerily similar to the way the Nets played in Cleveland on Wednesday, when they had an up-and-down performance. It was something the Nets had talked about avoiding following Friday’s win, but they proved unable to do so, and now head home for Tuesday’s game against the Jazz with losses in two of their first three games.
“We should be [ticked] off. I think everybody is [ticked] off. We are going to watch film [Monday], practice and then hopefully get better and come out and beat Utah.”