GIMME THAT: Deron Williams knocks the ball away from the Spurs’ Tony Parker during the Nets’ 104-73 loss last night in San Antonio. The Nets scored a franchise-low five points in the third quarter on the way to defeat. (AP)
SAN ANTONIO — The Nets looked at last night’s matchup with the Spurs as a chance to prove they’ve gotten back on track.
Instead, it showed how far they still have to go.
After hanging in the game for much of the first half despite allowing the Spurs to have whatever they wanted offensively, San Antonio obliterated the Nets in the third quarter, outscoring them 30-5 and turning what was once a competitive game into a 104-73 blowout.
“We were playing in quicksand,” Nets interim coach P.J. Carlesimo said, “and they were playing in another gear.”
The Nets (16-15) had fallen behind by as many as 11 early in the second quarter before slowly fighting their way back into the game behind a series of buckets from Joe Johnson. Then Brook Lopez hit a short floater to pull the Nets to within 50-47 at the 2:10 mark of the second.
From there, though, the Spurs (25-8) showed why they are one of the NBA’s elite teams, and how far the Nets are away from being one — or even the team that looked like one when it went 11-4 in November.
The third quarter, which has given the Nets trouble all season, was historically bad for them last night. The five total points the Nets finished the quarter with set a franchise record, breaking the old mark of seven, which had been tied three different times.
They finished the quarter 2-for-20 from the field, and committed seven turnovers that turned into 12 points for San Antonio. That combination allowed the Spurs to begin preparing for their New Year’s celebrations by the time the fourth quarter began.
“I think with a team like that, they know tendencies, and they probably targeted that third quarter knowing we sometimes have lapses, and took advantage of it,” said Deron Williams, who finished the game with eight points on 3-for-11 shooting to go with two rebounds and just one assist.
The Spurs, meanwhile, shot 13-for-19 from the field and scored 16 points in the paint, getting one wide-open look after another.
That was something the Spurs were able to do all night, as they shot 66 percent from the floor through the first three quarters before they pulled all of their starters in the fourth, led by a terrific performance from Tony Parker.
While Williams was struggling for the Nets, Parker was nearly perfect for the Spurs, finishing with 20 points on 9-for-13 shooting to go along with six assists and just one turnover.
“Defensively, we never got Tony under control,” Carlesimo said. “We never defended Tony’s pick-and-rolls. When we were supposed to blitz, we didn’t … it was just a very poor performance defensively the entire night.”
The loss capped a horrific December for the Nets, one that saw them finish 5-11, including going 3-10 before Avery Johnson was fired last Thursday, and left them ready to get out of the month.
“Yeah, hopefully the new year is better for us, because December was one of the worst I can remember,” Williams said. “We need to have a good practice [today] and talk about a lot of things, and hopefully improve.”