As the Nets finally have begun to get themselves going in the right direction recently, they’ve talked a lot about how simplifying things has led to success.
Well, Wednesday night’s game against Washington came down to a simple equation: the Nets got destroyed on the glass and behind the arc, which added up to them falling 113-107 to the Wizards in front of 16,187 inside Barclays Center.
“We scored enough points to win,” Nets coach Jason Kidd said. “There were some rebounds we couldn’t come up with down the stretch.
“We lost a game we felt we could control … when they get that many offensive rebounds, you can find yourself in a close game or you can find yourself losing, and that’s what we did tonight.”
After winning four of their previous five games, it appeared the Nets (9-16) were finally getting themselves back on track, in large part because of much better performances defensively.
That all went away, however, as the Wizards repeatedly found themselves with no one near them behind the arc, allowing them to go 12-for-20 from deep, including 9-for-11 in the first half.
“I think a lot of that is positioning,” said Paul Pierce, who led the Nets with 27 points off the bench. “A lot of times we get caught in the paint, where we have to make the second and third effort. I think we do good on the initial dribble-drive, and when they swing the ball and make multiple passes, we have to make multiple efforts to run guys off the 3-point line.”
Whenever the Nets did manage to stop them from scoring initially, the Wizards seemed to get every second-chance shot they wanted, as they collected a ridiculous 19 offensive rebounds, compared to just five for the Nets.
“I didn’t do a great job boxing my guy out, whoever he was, and he kept getting the rebound and scoring,” said Brook Lopez, who scored 22 points but grabbed just five boards after missing the previous two games with a sprained left ankle.
“I can’t be like that on the floor. … I didn’t really have any energy.”
The Nets’ poor performance at the defensive end kept them from winning despite shooting nearly 53 percent from the field and having five players in double-figures — including three with 20 points or more.
“Offensively, we were clicking,” said Joe Johnson, who had 20 points. “Defensively and rebounding the basketball hurt us.”
After a basket from Lopez tied the score early in the first quarter, the Wizards (11-13) immediately responded with a 13-2 run that gave them a lead they would hold for nearly the rest of the game.
Other than when the Nets made a run in the second quarter and took a brief 40-39 lead on a Pierce 3-pointer, they spent most of the game alternating runs with the Wizards. Every time the Nets would close to within four or five points, Washington would push the lead back to around 10.
The Nets finally managed to close to 101-100 with two minutes left on a fadeaway jumper from Deron Williams, who finished with 15 points and 13 assists while playing the entire second half. But, once again, the Wizards responded, getting a putback layup from Marcin Gortat off a John Wall (19 points) missed jumper. After Williams missed a jumper at the other end, Bradley Beal’s 3-pointer from the wing gave Washington a 106-100 lead with 1:08 left that sealed the win, and left the Nets heading into Friday’s game in Philadelphia lacking some of the momentum they had finally started generating.
“We are playing well, and I feel like we do have a good momentum going,” Kevin Garnett said. “When we failed to commit to some assignments, they countered on us, and that’s a good basketball team.”