NBA

Nets ‘very disappointed’ with slack effort in loss to Warriors

It doesn’t get much worse than the second half the Nets had last night against the Warriors.

Turnovers, poor shooting, bad defense — the Nets’ second half had it all, as they let a game they once led by double digits slip away. The Warriors handed the Nets their third straight loss, a 109-102 setback in front of a sellout Barclays Center crowd of 17,732.

“We don’t have a happy locker room right now,” Nets coach Avery Johnson said. “They are very, very disappointed with this loss, and I’m disappointed, but we really can’t hang our heads. Nobody’s going to feel sorry for us, but we’ve got to figure out what the problem is and how to solve it.”

There were a lot of problems late for the Nets (11-7), in what was nearly a carbon copy of the game the two teams played in Oakland a little more than two weeks ago.

Like they did that night, the Nets got off to a strong start, with Joe Johnson scoring 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting in the first quarter. But again the Nets steadily got worse from there. They allowed Golden State’s talented young backcourt of Stephen Curry — who finished with 28 points — and Klay Thompson to get hot from deep en route to the Warriors finishing the game 9-for-19 from behind the arc.

That, in turn, led to the Warriors (12-7) getting plenty of penetration into the paint, where former Knick David Lee — who finished with 30 points and 15 rebounds — took over, leading the Warriors to a staggering 50 points in the paint.

“Offense wasn’t the problem,” said Joe Johnson, who finished with a game- and season-high 32 points. “It’s defense. We just didn’t have that energy and effort to keep guys out the paint, box guys out and get rebounds.”

The Nets also allowed the Warriors to begin to control the pace of the game as it wore on. After using an effective strategy of running the offense through Joe Johnson below the free-throw line and on the block in the first quarter, allowing them to have a semblance of the post game they enjoy when injured center Brook Lopez is healthy, they were drawn away from it as the game wore on.

Instead, the Warriors — thanks in part to long misses off of 3-pointers and some quick shots by the Nets — were able to get out in transition. That resulted in a 24-2 advantage in fast-break points for Golden State, including nailing four transition 3-pointers.

“They got a lot of transition 3s, which we knew we had to get to those guys in transition,” said Deron Williams, who finished with 23 points and eight assists. “We just didn’t do a good job defensively. That’s what it comes down to.

“We missed some shots, missed some open shots here and there, but the defense is where we lost this game.”

After a strong first half, led by 20 points from Johnson and 13 points and eight rebounds from Andray Blatche, gave them a 63-55 halftime lead. After the intermission, the Nets shot 34 percent from the field, including a dismal 3-for-17 from 3-point range, and after having 14 assists and four turnovers in the first half, they had nine assists and nine turnovers in the second.

The Nets particularly struggled late in the fourth quarter, giving the Warriors several second-chance opportunities and squandering opportunities for easy baskets with careless turnovers.

“Man, the ball just kind of hit our hands and was coming off,” Avery Johnson said. “We just didn’t execute. Again, we can run a play, but you’ve got to execute. We’ve got to catch the ball. We’ve got to have on-time, on-target passes.

“We’ve got to figure it out. I saw a couple of guys hanging their heads tonight. That’s not good. That’s not mental toughness. So, again, we’ve got to repair some things, and we’ve got to figure out a way to get out of this losing streak.”