Nets rally in second half, too little, too late as Kings defeat Nets on the second night of their back-to-back on the road

The Brooklyn Nets loss to the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night was a tough pill to swallow. Sacramento came into the Barclays Center with a 10-20 record compared to the Nets’ 11-18 record, not much of a difference, but it should mean something particularly when you’re at home. To add insult to injury, the Kings had just defeated the Philadelphia 76ers 101-95 the night before, so the Kings were playing the second game of a back-to-back when they played the Nets at the Barclays Center. Instead of showing sign of lethargy, Sacramento took the floor and busted the game wide open. Sacramento closed out the first half by 16 points (64-48); just after doing the same thing in the first quarter. The Nets allowed the Kings to score 36 points in the first quarter, ending the first at 36-20.

“Yeah, giving up 36 points in the first quarter,” Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson remarked about the Nets’ abysmal first half. “They have good players on the other side and you can’t get in a hole like that. It is [a] disappointment in our defense and our defensive mentality to start the game. Obviously, the second half shows we are capable of doing it and capable of getting stops. But we let our guard down in the first quarter, dug a hole, and too deep of a hole.”

Yes, it was too deep of a hole. The Nets tried to claw their way back by scoring and getting stops in the second half, but it wasn’t enough and the Kings walked away with a 104-99 win over the Nets.

Once again, the Nets let a team force them to play their game. Instead of leading out of the gate, the Kings made the Nets play their game.

“I don’t know what you want to call it,” Nets point guard Spencer Dinwiddie said regarding the Nets slow start. “Lack of focus, lack of attention to detail, lack of effort, I don’t know what you want to call it. Sixty-four points in the first half is inexcusable, regardless of what team you play…”

“I think they had 30-something points in the first quarter,” Nets guard Caris LeVert said. “We can’t start a game off like that.”

Darn straight, not if you want to win! Why make the game harder than it needs to be, particularly with middling teams. What happens when Houston, Boston, and Cleveland come to town? Fortunately, Atkinson is not adverse to looking at changing the starting lineup, which is a good thing.

“I think four losses in a row, we have to look at everything,” Atkinson told the media. “We have to look at the start, what our lineup looks like to start. I definitely think we have to look at it. We have to analyze it and see if there is something to change up. We will look at that in the next day and see what is going on there.”

The one thing of many that is puzzling to the media is Atkinson’s reticence to putting Jahlil Okafor in the lineup. Looking for answers, one reporter did ask with Trevor Booker traded for Okafor and if Okafor is not playing, does this leave the Nets shorthanded?

“No, we are not shorthanded,” Atkinson responded. “We have Quincy (Acy) and Jarrett (Allen) in there as our back up bigs and Rondae (Hollis-Jefferson)and Tyler (Zeller), so we are not playing shorthanded there. I thought Quincy gave us some decent minutes. You know Jarrett is a young guy trying to learn this league, obviously, that is a physical team – did some good things. I thought he had some big blocks in the second half. We got to get our rhythm in general. We have lost it these last four games. It is a little perplexing this game after I thought we had two good days to get ready for this game. I was hoping we had the juice to compete at a higher level. But again, perplexed with the first quarter and the first half in general.”

IN HIS OWN WORDS: Brooklyn Nets Head Coach Kenny Atkinson

Dinwiddie led all Nets players with 16 points. DeMarre Carroll scored 15 points and seven rebounds; both Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Joe Harris scored 14 points and Hollis-Jefferson also added 10 rebounds to his total. LeVert and Allen Crabbe each chipped in 13 and 10 points respectively.

Sacramento’s scoring leaders were also rebounding machines. George Hill led all scorers with 22 points and seven rebounds; Zach Randolph scored 21 points and eight rebounds; former Nets player Bojan Bogdanovic added 14 points; Willie Cauley-Stein had 13 points and nine rebounds, and; Kosta Koufos chipped in 12 points and 8 rebounds.

Next up: Sacramento plays the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday, December 23rd, and the Nets will play the Washington Wizards for the second time this month at home at the Barclays Center on Friday, December 22, 2017, at 7:30 p.m.

Matinee games and the Knicks have been going together like those hideous orange uniforms they have displayed having lost all previous 6 games. So it was interesting (especially coming off their last 2 games) to see how they would fare against the Memphis Grizzlies Saturday afternoon at the World Most Famous or some would say "infamous" Arena.

With the heat mounting on head coach Mike Woodson and injuries to Raymond Felton, Kenyon Martin and Pablo Prigioni, Woodson elected to go with his bigs in the starting line-up, Tyson Chandler and Andrea Bargnani against the smaller Grizzlies. The strategy backfired as Memphis jumped out to a quick 17-8 lead after a Mike Conley short jumper. New York managed to right themselves going on a 14 to 8 run cutting the deficit to two points (25-22) at the end of the first period.

Tim Hardaway, Jr got the crowd into the game with a vicious dunk after a Carmelo Anthony steal giving the Knicks a 3-point (28-25) lead that would not last long. In the blink of an eye, the Grizzlies outscored the Knicks 25 to 12 taking a 10 point (50-40) halftime lead. Ex-Knick Zach Randolph 11 and Tony Allen 13 points leading the way. Meanwhile, the Knicks shooting was atrocious. They attempted 10 three-pointers missing 9. Anthony misses 6 of his first 10 shots, Bargnani 4 out of 5 and Iman Shumpert missed all four of his.

It went from bad to worse in the third period even though New York was only outscored by 1 point (22-21). Jammal Franklin, the latest guard the Knicks made look like an all-star, goes in for an uncontested lay-up pushing the lead to 14 (72-58). Memphis, crushing them on the boards out rebounded them 44-23. Seventeen second chance points and a whopping 11 to 4 in offensive rebounds. The final results would be even more horrific.

Down by 12 to begin the final period, the Grizzlies went up by as many as 19 (85-66) with more than five minutes to go. Boos raining down from the frustrated crowd. The Knicks frantic comeback was started by a Hardaway, Jr 3-point bomb and when Anthony finishes a lay-up, the lead dwindled to 10 (85-75) getting the crowd back into the game. But just like all game and all season, the defense that defined the team last year, could not get stops when needed.

New York managed to get the lead down to four points (91-87) after Chandler converts free throws with 25.6 left. It would be the last points of the game for them as the Knicks lost for the 10th time at home. The big line-up was anything but as Memphis outscored New York 60 to 28 in the paint and out-rebounded them by an astounding 56 to 29. Something Woodson was not pleased with.

"That is embarrassing especially when you start a big lineup," Woodson said.

He called out players he felt were responsible.

"Tyson, Bargnani, Melo have to rebound the ball better and we have to do it as a unit. We could not keep them out of the paint and that was a problem."

The loss dropped their record to 8 and 18 and they are quickly becoming an afterthought in a division that can be taken by anybody.

"I take pride in trying to win games at home" continued Woodson. "That was the whole beauty the last two years. We have been slow in that area and that has put us in a hole. If we won half of our home games we would be sitting at the top of our division the way it is playing out. We have to put a string of wins on the road. That is the only way we can get out this hole."

If the New York Knicks keep losing, be it at home or on the road, Woodson may not be around if they do climb out.