WASHINGTON — In a season where the losses more than double the wins, where newly acquired All-Star Deron Williams is hurting and needs to rest — maybe right to the off-season — it would have to take something pretty nasty for coach Avery Johnson to admit it was flat out painful.
Welcome to yesterday’s disaster.
“I told our players this loss was really painful. That’s the one word I used with our team, just painful,” Johnson said. “I’m really disappointed with our effort, especially in the second half.”
Want painful? The Nets (22-46) who are seven games out of the playoffs with 14 remaining, led by 17 points in the first half. And they lost. That flat out can hurt. The Nets scored 36 points in the second half — just 12 in the third quarter. They committed 22 turnovers that led to 32 Wizards points.
“We stopped doing what was working for us: moving the ball, getting into early offense, playing the swing game, sharing it, lots of continuity, lots of fluidity,” said Jordan Farmar, who had a career-high 17 assists. “We were really stagnant in the second half.”
Stagnant, that’s a nice word. The Nets shot .293 after halftime. That’s something more than stagnant. Start with painful.
“That’s a lot better [word],” said Brook Lopez, who scored 21 points, his 10th straight game with 20 or more points. He also had 10 rebounds for his eighth double-double of the season and seventh in the past 16 games.
“When you’re not scoring, you’ve got to get stops and we weren’t able to do that down the stretch,” said Kris Humphries (18 points, 17 rebounds) who had his 10th straight double-double. “It was a tough loss. We kind of lost the momentum offensively and gave up the lead. And then when they got that momentum, we couldn’t get it back.”
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Anthony Morrow said he re-aggravated a sprained left index finger when “somebody tried to steal the ball and it just jammed” late in game.
He doesn’t think it will keep him from playing tonight against Pacers “unless I wake up and it’s feeling real bad.”
Morrow said finger was X-rayed after team returned from London.
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Wizards, who were down for rotation regulars with injuries (Josh Howard, Andray Blatche, Rashard Lewis and Nick Young), started three rookies for third straight game, including John Wall (game-high 26 points) and Jordan Crawford (21 points). Wall had two huge baskets and a steal in final 1:22.
As bad as 12-point third quarter was for Nets, it wasn’t their worst. They had nine in third quarter against T-Wolves on New Year’s Day. . . . Nets outrebounded Wizards, 47-32.
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Nets officially announced the signing of Sundiata Gaines to a multi-year contract.
Gaines, who gets pro-rated deal this season, will receive veteran’s minimum of $884,293 for next season. The Archbishop Molloy product and Jamaica, Queens, guy was ecstatic.
“It feels great, kind of a big relief,” said Gaines, who played with Deron Williams in Utah last year and had some games with Minnesota and Toronto this season. “I just want to finish out the season on a good note. I think me working hard I opened a lot of eyes, and they felt like I deserved it for another year.
“I haven’t played a whole season with one team so it’s been tough on my part. And now I’ll get an opportunity to play a whole year and learn the system and just get acquainted with the guys on the team and feel more comfortable,” added Gaines, who thinks his defense won over Johnson.
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Lopez got more than seven stitches from Andrew Bogut‘s elbow Friday. He also got a reason to see his dentist.
“He got me here [chin] and I have a chipped tooth, too, in the back. I’ll get some dental work later,” Lopez said.