WASHINGTON — Questions, lots of questions surfaced after the Nets’ latest one-game winning streak went belly up last night.
For example, how bad is Devin Harris’ injury after he left the game at 7:23 in the third quarter with a bruised right thigh?
How in creation could the Nets trail by 20 points before nine game minutes expired against the Wizards, one of the very few teams they lead in the standings?
Why, unless there is damaging evidence of his involvement to overthrow the government, would Carmelo Anthony want to come to New Jersey?
And finally, could the Nets possibly have played any worse than they did in this 97-77 monstrosity of a loss to Washington.
The first few questions go something like: “not real bad, darned if we know, maybe he lost a bet.” But the answer to the last one is “No.” At least let’s hope. If there is a worse performance ahead, just call the season off right now.
“We got off to a terrible start. They took control of the game in the first quarter,” coach Avery Johnson said with a sigh.
“It wasn’t our best effort,” said Harris (four points, 1-of-7 shooting in 20 minutes), who expected to play tonight against Milwaukee despite the bruise suffered from Kirk Hinrich’s knee. “Offensively we just had one of those games where we couldn’t score.”
And early on, the Nets (10-26) didn’t quite have a game for the ages defensively either. But start with an offense that doomed them. Harris’ first two shots were blocked by JaVale McGee (six of the Wizards’ 10 rejects). Then they committed three straight turnovers. Three more misses — the offense was bailed out on a defensive three-second technical against Washington. So armed with one point, they hit their next shot, a jumper by Brook Lopez (14 points). Down 7-3, the Nets were rolling.
Until Washington ran off the next 14 points, nine of them on three consecutive trifectas by Rashard Lewis. That made it 21-3 at 4:50. By 3:07 when McGee scored, the Nets were down 26-6.
“It starts with how we started the game. You give any NBA team that kind of jump, it’s very difficult to bounce back,” said Kris Humphries (eight points, eight rebounds) who supplied a little energy early but was in the minority on the Nets’ side. “They got good players who can score the ball.”
Insert your own joke here about the Nets.
“This was a game where I think we were probably 2 for about 15 on wide-open shots,” Johnson said. “These were shots that weren’t even contested.”
The Nets made a run in the third quarter when Jordan Farmar (14 points) hit a 3-pointer that got the deficit to 12. They had a shot to get within 10. Suffice to say they did. Suffice to say they trailed by 25 in the fourth.
“We can’t hide it. It’s terrible,” said Sasha Vujacic, who shot 1-for-14 from the floor. “They made a couple of 3-point shots and we just couldn’t connect. We just couldn’t get any stops. We played a terrible game.”