For the Nets, their effort couldn’t have been more inspiring

The last time Dwyane Wade visited the Brooklyn Nets, he broke their hearts-hitting clutch shots late, and the Miami Heat escaped with a 104-98 win. On Tuesday night, post-winter storm Jonas, Wade did it again. The old pro, like he’s displayed his entire career, he hit big shots late, leading the Heat to a narrow 102-98 victory over the Nets.

With 1:35 left in the 4th quarter, Wade lost Thaddeus Young on a screen set by Chris Bosh, as he made his way to the basket, uncovered. Luol Deng found him, Wade went up for the layup and finished, despite being fouled by Wayne Ellington, increasing what was a one-point 94-93 lead to 97-93 adding the free-throw. Moments later, the Nets would turn the ball over, one of their 16 TOs for the night and Wade made them pay.

He evaded Ellington, dribbled to the right side of the three-point arc, met Brook Lopez on the switch and drained a step-back mid-range jumper, giving the Heat a 99-93 advantage with 1:04 left in the 4th. Ten seconds later, Donald Sloan (10 points) would hit a three to make things interesting, pulling the Nets to within three, 99-96 but to no avail. Wade and Bosh scored 27 apiece, team highs, and rookie Justise Winslow impressed with 13 points and seven rebounds.

“Typical CB, typical D-Wade,” said Lopez who finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds.“You know, they do just a great job of moving the ball constantly on offense. You can tell they’re composed, regardless of the score.”

For the Nets, their effort couldn’t be more inspiring. The Nets won the 1st half, shooting 55 percent from the field and from three, heading into halftime with a 57-51 lead. In the third, the Heat responded and the Nets started to see their lead and momentum transfer to the opposing bench.

“I thought offensively we struggled in the second half,” Nets head coach Tony Brown said post-game. “I think our pace slowed down, and the ball didn’t move as freely as it did in the first half.”

The turnovers didn’t help either.

At the half, the Nets had three TOs. They finished with 16, including four in the first five minutes of the 3rd quarter, coupled with bad shooting, which helped the Heat start the 2nd half on a 10-1 run. After Bosh’s three with a little over eight minutes left in the 3rd gave the Heat their first lead of the game, 60-58 since 6-4 early in the 1st quarter, the Heat never looked back.

They took control of the 2nd half and the Bosh and Wade duo made sure the Nets wouldn’t have another upset win like they did against OKC. Like the Nets, Miami has been struggling as of late, and before wins against the Chicago Bulls, their previous game, and the Nets tonight, Wade and co. endured a four-game losing streak.

“It’s just important to come out here and get a win,” Wade said in the visitors locker-room following the win. “It wasn’t about backing up what happened in Chicago. We’re a team that lost four in a row.” He continued: “We had to go all the way into the bottom of the bag tonight to be able to pull this out, but we were able to.”

Thaddeus Young scored 12 points, Joe Johnson added 15 and Andrea Bargnani came off the bench to score a team-high 20.

The Nets did beat OKC not too long ago and although they competed against the Heat, Brown expressed that there are no moral victories and at the end of the day the Nets want to win games.

Their next shot comes this Friday @ the Dallas Mavericks.

"Maybe it’s a coincidence, but that’s the way we need to play every night. I guess we need to play every night like we’re playing OKC.” --- Brooklyn Nets center Brook Lopez

Winter superstorm Jonas arrived in NYC this weekend and blessed us with up to 18 inches of snow. Due to the storms results, the Brooklyn Nets pushed its late afternoon game against the Oklahoma City Thunder to the evening. Perhaps, just maybe, it had something to do with why the Nets decided to show up.

Brook Lopez led the Nets with 31 points and 10 rebounds, his 18th double-double of the season, to upset the Thunder and their star-studded cast, 116-106.

“He was making shots,” Oklahoma City Thunder small forward Kevin Durant simply stated regarding Brook’s big night.

With the win, the Nets ended their five-game losing streak while stopping the Thunder’s seven-game winning streak.

Before this game, which was delayed by four hours, it was viewed as a sure loss by just about everybody and on Sunday night, the Nets defied the odds. They never trailed and other than the 3rd quarter where the Nets mirrored the Thunder in points scored with 25, Brooklyn outscored OKC in every other quarter. Whenever OKC got close, the Nets found a way to answer and score consistently, which is something the Nets have struggled with all season long.

Brooklyn Nets Scores when it counts

When OKC’s Kyle Singler drained a three, set up by Kevin Durant in the 2nd quarter with a little over five minutes left, bringing OKC to within one down 45-46, Bojan Bogdanovic and Andrea Bargnani answered with a three and jumper respectively, putting the Nets back up by six, 51-45. In the 4th with a little over six minutes remaining, Dion Waiters brought OKC to within five 93-98 after his two-point shot.

Shortly after, the Nets would spend the next three minutes sealing their 12th win of the season. Thaddeus Young scored twice en route to another solid performance, scoring 14 points with 14 boards and Lopez added two.

“We went out and executed, we ran our stuff all the way through,” Young said post-game.

Yes, the Nets finally won a game but the biggest winner of all was the fans.

Brooklyn’s faithful braved the aftermath of Jonas, got to witness a victory and also got to witness two of the league's greatest players in Durant and Russell Westbrook. KD and Westbrook both produced double-doubles of their own in 32 and 10 rebounds and 27 and 11 rebounds, respectively and after the game Durant praised Lopez and Young for their efforts.

“They were tough,” Durant said. “They kicked our ass all night, you know, rebounding the ball, scoring in the paint. They did what they wanted to.”

And that’s coming from a credible opponent, actually referencing the Nets. And Durant is talking about the Nets edging OKC on the boards 49 to 46, including 18 offensive rebounds, which led to extra possessions for Brooklyn. Steven Adams, OKC’s muscle in the post and starting center was missing in action which has a lot to do with the success Lopez, Young and the Nets enjoyed on the glass and scoring inside and to their credit, they took advantage.

It’s also worth noting that after the beat-down the Utah Jazz laid on the Nets on Friday night, the Nets were able to bounce back and that started with the team’s best player. Against the Jazz, Lopez was limited to eight points having to deal with Rudy Gobert’s block party all night long. Against OKC, guarded mostly by Enes Kanter, Lopez got his mojo back, which seems to happen more often than not when playing the Thunder. Brook is averaging 28.5 ppg vs. OKC this year.

“I don’t know,” Lopez said regarding his play against OKC this season. “Maybe it’s a coincidence, but that’s the way we need to play every night. I guess we need to play every night like we’re playing OKC.”

So basically, the Nets have to figure out how they can alter what’s left of their regular season schedule to take on the Thunder until season’s end. Or maybe the Nets finally got the message of what head coach Tony Brown has been emphasizing in sharing the ball recording 24 assists on OKC.

“I thought our guys heed the message, shared the ball, moving, moving bodies, and the floor opened up for us,” Brown expressed post-game. “The options will present themselves, if we don’t force it.”

Until Tuesday’s game hosting the Miami Heat, the Nets will have the chance to do something they haven’t done in a while: smile.

Brooklyn Nets stayed competitive up to close of 2nd Quarter; Utah’s 37-point third quarter doomed Nets recovery

Different opponent. Same result. Same old Brooklyn Nets.

It doesn’t matter who lines up as the next challenger, the Nets just can’t catch a break. Tonight the same old tune repeated itself, this time, featuring the Utah Jazz. With Derrick Favors, Dante Exum, and Alec Burks all out of the rotation due to injuries, Gordon Hayward, one of the league's most underrated players, scored a team-high 21 points with nine assists, leading the Jazz to a commanding 108-86 win over the Nets. The Nets fell to 11-33 on the season, their fifth straight loss while the Jazz improved to 19-24, a half-game out of the 8th spot in the west.

Hayward scored 10 of his 21 in the 1st quarter alone, hitting four of his first five shots which included two threes. Despite Haywards hot-start, the Nets, surprisingly enough got off to a good start. They held a narrow one-point lead over the Jazz going into the second quarter, but like most of the Nets losses this year, the 2nd half continues to be a problem and on Friday night that fact was validated once again.

The Nets gave up a whopping 37 points to their 17 in the third quarter. After ending the 2nd quarter on a run, the Jazz‘s offensive success carried over to the beginning of the third where they would enjoy a 13-4 run in the first five minutes of the quarter. Rudy Gobert, who provided highlights all night on both ends, along with Rodney Hood, Raul Neto and Trey Lyles are all responsible for increasing what was a reasonable eight-point lead to a 17-point advantage with a little over seven minutes left in the third.

Moments later, the Nets would call a 20-second timeout to regroup, with under five minutes to go, while hopefully disrupting the Jazz’s momentum but it didn’t matter. Seconds later, Hayward would evade Thaddeus Young, using a nifty crossover dribble between his legs, drive baseline, and convert a beautiful reverse layup, putting the Jazz up by 20, 71-51 with 4:23 left in the third.

“He’s scoring the ball and drawing a lot of attention now and the guy is stepping up and knocking down shots when they come to him,” said Hood reflecting on Hayward’s big night. “He’s just being aggressive, being who he is, being who he’s been all season really.”

It signaled one of the highlights of the game. It signaled what was going right for Hayward and the Jazz who clearly did not want to leave NY 0-2 after losing to the New York Knicks in OT on Wednesday night. It signaled another Nets loss. The Jazz would continue to pile on the points in the third entering the fourth with a 28-point lead, 85-57. Hood finished with 16 points, and Gobert, Neto and Lyles all chipped in 10 points each.

When the final buzzer sounded, the crowd treated the Nets like a Knicks loss during the Isiah Thomas era. The boos rained down on the home team and it felt like some of the darkest days the Knicks had to endure during that era.

It was too bad because the Brooklyn Nets had an encouraging first quarter. Every Nets starter scored, except Donald Sloan who recorded four assists. After that, the offense fell apart.

“I thought we had a good rhythm to start the game, and after the first quarter, we kind of lost it,” Brooklyn Nets head coach Tony Brown said post-game.

Brown continued to say that after giving up 37 points in the third quarter, the game was over which compelled him to give some minutes to other guys like Sergey Karasev and in the process, ending Brook Lopez’s night. The team’s best player scored eight points in just 19 minutes of play which could be one of his worst outings of the year. Bojan Bogdanovic led the Nets with 14 points coming off of the bench which is a major problem.

Joe Johnson wasn’t much of a factor scoring only eight points and Sloan ended his night with just two points. Offensively, the Nets are definitely challenged but it doesn’t help that the team is struggling to take care of the orange as well. The Nets only committed 11 turnovers on Friday night but it’s the timing of the turnovers that are hurting the Nets the most.

“The same song and story as it’s been the last couple of games,” a dejected Young said in the locker-room. “We get off to good starts, we have good first halves then in the second half we’ll have two or three crucial turnovers that kind of turns the momentum of the game and it just slips away from us.”

As bad as this year has gone for the Nets with no letup in sight as they host the Oklahoma City Thunder and Miami Heat in their next two games before they head westward, Brown is not giving up on his squad.

Brown wants to continue encouraging the guys to do things the right way.

“I am not going to change my approach,” Brown said. “I am going to keep coaching, but you know, there is some soul-searching to be done. I am going to keep fighting, I just hope they do.”

Don’t, we all.

Nets struggled on both ends, but to their credit, held Cavs to 91 points

On Monday night, at primetime, the Golden State Warriors handed the Cleveland Cavaliers their worst home loss of the season, 132-98. Unfortunately for the Brooklyn Nets, the Cavs were their next opponent. It was fun for Brooklyn and all of the fans in attendance who paid to see the stars that Cleveland has to offer, but not for the home team expected to defend their home-court.

From the opening tip to the final buzzer, the Cavs came to Barclays Center on Wednesday night and handled their business, beating the Nets, 91-78. It was exactly what the doctor ordered for the Eastern Conference leaders and while the Nets were within striking distance for the majority of the first half, the Cavs made their statement late in the third and never looked back. After Thomas Robinson’s layup cut the Cavs lead to 10, 63-53 with 4:41 left in the 3rd, Cavs reserve Matthew Dellavedova answered with a two of his own. Moments later, LeBron James added a three with three minutes and a half left in the third.

Dellavedova’s jumper kick-started a 10-2 run, increasing what was a harmless 10-point lead to an 18-point uphill climb for the Nets. To begin the 4th, the only Cavs starter in the game was J.R. Smith. For Lebron, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, their night was over. After scoring just three points against the Warriors, Love found his footing and rebounded in a big way.

He scored 17 points like Lebron and also grabbed 18 boards for the second time this season.

“I was just happy with Kevin going out there with a great mindset and getting back to his normal self,” Cavs head coach David Blatt said regarding Love’s bounce-back game. “Those are the kind of games he’s been giving us since the beginning of the year and for me, that is normal Kevin Love.”

He also assisted Lebron on his first two points of the game; a breakaway tomahawk slam. And the highlight play was the result of the vexing Cavs defense the Nets dealt with all night long. The Cavs scored 16 fast-break points and 19 off of turnovers they caused.

“Well, Coach has been pushing us about pushing the tempo, pushing our pace, getting up the floor, and I think we did that tonight,” Lebron said who also had five assists, just under his regular season average of six.

From the start, you could sense the urgency from the opposing team who looked like they were out to prove something and it would be difficult not crediting Golden State’s loss as inspiration.

“I’m sure it had something to do with it, but mostly it had to do with our guys reaching down and recognizing we had to get back on track right away,” said Blatt post-game. “It’s painful to get knocked down but it’s shameful to not get back up if you get knocked down. To the guys’ credit, they got back up and played a terrific basketball game.”

The Nets wish they could say the same. They only allowed 91 points to clearly the best team in the Eastern Conference but the offense wasn’t there.

Outside of Brook Lopez’s 16 points, Thaddeus Young chipped in 14 and Donald Sloan added 12 and nine assists. Wednesday’s loss signaled the Nets fourth straight and interim Head Coach Tony Brown continues to look for answers.

“I didn’t think it was our best effort since I have taken over,” Brown said post-game. “I don’t know if it was just because it was Cleveland, I don’t know, but clearly we can do better on both ends of the floor.”

If playing the best team in the Eastern Conference doesn’t rev you up to play, then what will?

Since Lionel Hollins was dismissed as the Brooklyn Nets head coach, the Nets have shown fight but against the Cavs they did not put forth the kind of effort they displayed against the Toronto Raptors, their previous game. As the offense went, the Nets went and the inability to get a rhythm going in the first half sealed the Nets fate for the remainder of the game.

After Cleveland, the road gets tougher. The Nets will host the Utah Jazz on Friday night who are fresh off of a tough OT loss to the New York Knicks and will then welcome the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Miami Heat. Nets’ fans expect wins, but more than wins, they expect a fight. It’s up to the Nets to decide whether that will be the norm going forward no matter how rough their season continues to be.

Brook Lopez won the battle of the brothers; Thaddeus Young had 19 points and 11 rebounds, and the ghost of Joe Johnson returned

The Brooklyn Nets took advantage of New York Knicks minus forward Carmelo “Melo” Anthony on Wednesday night and beat the Knicks 110-104, snapping a season-high 10-game home losing streak. It was the Nets’ third straight home victory over the Knicks.

In a game with lots of story lines, first is Nets’ interim coach Tony Brown’s first victory overall. Brown inherited the interim coach position on Sunday when former Nets head coach Lionel Hollins lost his position.

Perhaps, the Nets going into this game believed that they could win, Melo or no Melo, considering they have won five of the last six games against the Knicks. Perhaps, it was a new head coach with a new philosophy and new demeanor, but the Nets seemed to play with more energy and more swagger.

Bojan Bogdanovic came off the bench in the first quarter on three-point fire; knocking down 3 three-pointers in three minutes 11 seconds of play. Overall, Bogdanovic scored 14 points and four rebounds in just under 23 minutes of playing time.

Nets center Brook Lopez won the battle of the brothers, as he was more productive than his brother Robin Lopez. In 29:32 minutes of play, Brook scored 20 points, five assists, and eight rebounds to Robin’s nine points and 12 rebounds in 30:40 minutes of play.

Brooklyn Nets forward Thaddeus Young had 19 points and 11 rebounds, and Shane Larkin, who didn’t start in place of injured Jarrett Jack, put up 17 points, five assists, and two rebounds. Joe Johnson, who is still the subject of trade rumors and looked like the Joe Johnson of previous seasons, he made two key jumpers in the final 2 minutes and finished with 14 points, seven rebounds, and six assists. Point guard Wayne Ellington chipped in 10 points, two assists, and two rebounds.

The electricity in the air at the Barclays Center was palpable. Celebrity row actually had celebrities. R&B singer Maxwell was in the house promoting his upcoming concert with rapper Nas. New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz, who was cheered at the opening of the Barclays Center, was roundly booed; probably by disappointed Giants fans. Even former Knicks player Andrea Bargnani got booed, but surprisingly, not Shane Larkin another former Knick. At times, there was a battle of the fans, as Knicks fans made their presence known. Nets fans may have been outnumbered, but most of the evening, they were not shrinking violets.

"Games like this, it's going to help turn our fan base around," Brown said. "If we continue to play in this kind of fashion, we'll fill the seats, but we've got to show them first. It'll take time, but tonight was a good start."

In defeat, Knicks forward Derrick Williams came off the bench and led all scorers and tied his career high 31 points. Other Knicks players scoring in double digits were Arron Afflalo with 18 points; Jose Calderon added 16 points and wonder-kid Kristaps Porzingis, who shot just 5 for 17, chipped in 12 points and 10 rebounds.

"On nights like this when we don't have (Anthony), I can't have a shooting night like this," Porzingis said. "I've got to step up. I've got to score the ball more."

Looks like the stars aligned for the Nets.

Next up for the Nets will be the Portland Trailblazers on Friday.

The Nets drop 8th straight at home with 91-74 loss to Raptors

It’s a bit unsettling, but it appears that the Brooklyn Nets are in free-fall motion, losing their eighth straight home game against the Toronto Raptors. 91-74.

The Nets haven’t won at home since they played the 76ers on December 10; which is quite troubling. Also, the team’s 74 points are the lowest points scored all season. Somebody ring the alarm bells.

Toronto came into this game, having lost two games, but are still first in the Atlantic Division and tied for fourth place in the Eastern Conference with Atlanta. The game started off decently enough for the Nets, considering they are playing without Jarrett Jack and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson. They ended the first quarter with only a seven-point deficit (24-17) and 4 of 7 shooting from behind the arc in the first half.

In a game that was tied three times and with three lead changes, it became increasingly clear that the Nets just didn’t have the firepower to keep it close even in defeat. Three Nets players scored in double digits, Brook Lopez led all scorers with 24 points and 13 boards; Bojan Bogdanovic, who is rumored to be on the trading block, scored 12 points, and Thaddeus Young chipped in 11 points and seven rebounds. Newly-minted starting point guard Shane Larkin put up nine points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals. Four bench players scored a total of 13 points.

Joe Johnson’s level of production has been dismal this season. He seems to have been missing in action in far too many games. At least this game, he had a stated reason for only scoring five points and two rebounds – a bruised left quad. Johnson was scoreless until hitting a 3-pointer in the third quarter.

On the other hand, the Raptors, a team that the Nets have matched pretty evenly in the last several years, bounced back from its two losses rather convincingly. Jonas Valanciunas returning from a broken finger lifted Toronto with his 22 points, 11 rebounds. Kyle Lowry added 17 points from field goal range, along with eight rebounds and six assists, and DeMar DeRozan appended 15.

Brooklyn Nets head coach Lionel Hollins summed up the Nets loss this way, “Their quickness just dominated. We couldn’t move the ball from side to side; they took away a lot of our ball movement. We had spurts where we were able to do it, but we weren’t able to do it consistently. We missed a lot of easy shots and it got us in a hole and then we battled back and in the second half they just kept grinding us out.”

With Jack out for the season, Hollis-Jefferson out until March, and Johnson providing minimal production, it’s going to be an ugly season for Brooklyn.

The Nets play Orlando on Friday.

Nets Offense Fails in the 4th Quarter; Johnson and Larkin Miss Key Shots

In the 4th quarter, with a little over a minute left until the end of regulation, Brooklyn Nets Joe Johnson and Shane Larkin missed back-to-back threes that would have cut what was a nine-point, 83-74 deficit to six. Even with a made shot, the Nets would still have had an uphill climb in capturing the win. However, the missed shots put a spotlight on the struggles the Nets have had this season in late-game offensive execution.

On Friday night, Victor Oladipo and Nikola Vucevic each scored 20 points and handed the Nets an 83-77 loss, their ninth straight loss at home and 3rd straight to the Magic.

It was the Nets 3rd straight loss (10-26), losing seven of their last ten games while the Magic (20-17) snapped a four-game losing streak. Once again, making plays late when they matter the most, has doomed the Nets. With 6:48 left in the 4th quarter, Brook Lopez shot a floater off of a penetration feed from Larkin.

He missed, received his own rebound, fought against Vucevic and got a hook-shot to go, tying the contest at 68 all, two of his team-high 17 points. Following the bucket, the Nets were held scoreless from the field for the next five minutes. At the most critical juncture of the game, the Nets would miss their next three shots, commit two turnovers and worst of all, fail to stop Orlando’s youth movement.

Aaron Gordon and Oladipo took turns nailing the coffin, featuring two threes’ from Oladipo and four points from Gordon. Evan Fournier who scored 13 points also added a three in the midst of a 13-2 run until Thaddeus Young stopped the bleeding with the Nets second FG in 5 minutes. During the Magic’s run, Lopez connected on two free-throws while the Nets offense fell flat.

“…In the last quarter, we just couldn’t make a play, couldn’t make a shot and again we come away with a loss,” Nets head coach Lionel Hollins said post-game also claiming that he sounds like a broken record.

To begin the game, the Nets looked like the team that would eventually lose, falling to an early double-digit lead in the first quarter. In the second and third, the Nets found better results. They battled back by increasing their defensive pressure, got out in transition and shot 80 percent from the free-throw line.

They even led by five towards the end of the third and early in the fourth. But they couldn’t hold onto it and the credit goes to the Magic’s defense for not allowing the Nets to build a substantial advantage.

“Our defense got a little bit tighter,” Magic head coach Scott Skiles said following the win. “We were playing so hard on the defensive end that I felt it took a little juice out of our offense. We were getting it up the court a little too slow. The clock winding down on us, but we were able to make a couple of shots and you need to make those.”

According to Young who scored 11 points and nine rebounds, the Nets just have to make plays.

“We just have to execute. Execute, make shots,” Young said post-game. “We had great opportunities at the basket.”

Unfortunately, the Nets had trouble finishing their opportunities at the basket. Another reason why the Nets had trouble stopping Orlando was their 3-point percentages for this game. Oladipo, who led the Magic in made threes with four, and the rest of his team drained 13 threes of 27 attempts, good for 48 percent while the Nets could not match, shooting 31 percent from long-range and 39 percent in field goals.

After another game, another loss, the Nets are stuck asking about the same problems, and in the end, have nothing to show for it.

“It gets frustrating, but you have to keep continuing to push it, keep continuing to push it, keep continuing to play and keep trying take positives from these games, Young added.”

Until the Nets win the fourth quarter, nights like Friday night will continue to occur and it gets even tougher on Monday night when they host the Southwest Division-leading San Antonio Spurs.

Celtics’ Crowder's Big Night Dooms Nets; Shane Larkin Stumbles in Starting Role in Jarrett Jack’s Absence

As the temperature drops in Brooklyn so has the climate surrounding the Brooklyn Nets. On Saturday in a win against the Boston Celtics, 100-97, the Nets lost their starting point guard Jarrett Jack for the remainder of the season, to a torn ACL which he suffered late in the third quarter. On a freezing Monday night in Brooklyn, the Boston Celtics took advantage of Jack’s absence and just added to what has become a miserable season for the Barclays Center’s only professional basketball club.

The Celtics' Jae Crowder and all of his dreads scored a team-high 25 points and six rebounds, leading the C’s to a 103-94 victory over the Nets, winning the other half of the home-and-home series. Crowder started his big night as early as the first quarter, scoring 14 points which helped facilitate the Celtics (19-15) in creating distance, ending the first 12 mins of the game with a 37-22 lead. Despite his strong start, the play’s Crowder made towards the end of the game hurt the Nets (10-24) the most and proved to be the deciding factor in the games result.

When the Nets made their attempts to threaten the Celtics dominance in this game, as well as their chance at winning, Crowder answered the bell. Joe Johnson, who did a little bit of everything scoring 21 points with six rebounds and four assists, drained a big eight-foot jump shot with three mins left in the 4th which cut the Celtics lead to five, 90-85. In response, Crowder sinks a long-range bomb, increasing the C’s lead to eight, 93-85 with a little under three mins left in the final quarter.

“He’s hit big shots for us all year,” Celtics Head Coach Brad Stevens said reflecting on Crowder. “He’s not afraid of the moment and he stepped up.”

A minute later, the Nets would find themselves needing a stop, trailing by six, 95-89 and there was Crowder again, making the Nets pay-converting a driving layup and an and-1 to put the C’s up for good 98-89. And for the exclamation point, the Celtics next two points highlighted Marcus Smart, who drove to the rim with a minute left in the 4th and added a beautiful-acrobatic-reverse layup, avoiding Brook Lopez, which put the C’s up by nine, 100-91.

Late game execution continues to be a problem for the Nets but there is no doubt that Lionel Hollins and co. did not get off to the start that they would have hoped to. In the 1st quarter alone, the Nets committed eight turnovers which led to 10 Celtics points.

“We turned the ball over a lot, and that got them out on the open court kind of playing the game at their pace and so, obviously, it’s tough to put yourself in that position and come back from it,” Brook Lopez said post-game, scoring 19 points to the Nets cause.

Fortunately for the Celtics, their strong start was enough to propel them to the win, as their first quarter alone was more points than the Nets could ever rival throughout their entire game. To their credit, the Nets did outscore the C’s in every quarter following the 1st, but the damage was done.

“We just couldn’t make enough plays to get all the way back,” a disappointed Hollins said post-game. Hollins also does not want to associate the Nets lack of ball-control to the loss of Jack, stating that “there is always a rationalization for anything bad that happens” and simply, “we have to keep working and get better.”

In Jack’s place, Shane Larkin assumed the starting role and didn’t have the most dazzling performance like his counterpart, Isaiah Thomas, who added 19 points and seven assists, the second leading scorer on the C’s.

Larkin struggled to create for himself and for his teammates, ending his night with four points, two assists while criticizing his lack of aggressiveness to his low production.

“I’ve just got to go out there and play my game and stop thinking so much and just play,” Larkin said post-game. “I’ve shown I can do it. I’ve had great games this year, I’ve had not so good games this year. I’ve just got to stay being aggressive and just be consistent for my team and it’ll be better for sure.”

Larkin’s comments could be the theme of the Nets profile as a team this year. One of the few bright spots on the Nets continues to be the play of Thaddeus Young who chipped in a double-double, 23 and 15 rebounds to lead all Nets scorers. Jack's injury will force the Nets to take turns being the playmaker, especially in the backcourt, which could result in Johnson handling the ball a little more and tonight was a perfect example of that.

The Nets will host the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night at 7:30 pm.

Joe Johnson still underachieving, scores only nine points for Brooklyn Nets

Despite having three players with double-doubles, the Nets lost to the Washington Wizards 111-96, at the Barclays Center on Sunday. Brooklyn Nets center Brook Lopez led his team with 19 points, 11 rebounds; Thaddeus Young scored 16 points 14 boards, and Jarrett Jack chipped in 15 points and 11 assists.

Although Bojan Bogdanovic, a member of the Nets starting five, didn’t have a double-double, he registered 14 points, five boards, and two assists.

As with other games, the final score doesn’t give the total story. The Nets were hanging close and even went up six late in the third quarter. Young even had 12 of his 14 rebounds in the first half.

However, Washington turned into real wizards going on a 16-2 run late in the fourth quarter. The Wizards were up 19 points with less than four minutes remaining and outscored the Nets 32-19.

The Nets starting five outscored the Wizards starting five 73-71. However, Washington’s bench saved the day, beating back the Nets’ reserves 40-23. Even Kris Humphries, who was married to Kim Kardashian for all of 72 days, chipped in 10 points for the Wizards.

Washington’s Marcin Gortat led all scorers with 25 points, seven rebounds, three assists, and one steal. John Wall added 22 points and 13 assists.

Nets Breakdown in the fourth quarter

The Nets entered the fourth quarter down two points and then things began to unravel. It was as though the team had lost its compass; they had eight turnovers in the fourth quarter alone.

“I think they were kind of unforced,” Lopez explained about the turnovers in the fourth quarter. “I could’ve come to the ball more- I should’ve. I think we got up to playing at their pace a little bit and got away from our game. But, it definitely started defensively. I did a poor job on the pick and roll, and that led everything.”

”They hit a few big threes,” Lopez continued. “I don’t think we did a good job really of adjusting to what they were doing. It kind of just fell apart from there. They got hot and kept going.”

Losing is taking its toll on the team; the Nets (8-22) have lost their last six home games.

"We're the team we are at the moment," Brooklyn Nets head coach Lionel Hollins said of the Nets being 14 games under .500. "We're struggling to get better. We have starts of moving forward and then we have lags where we go backwards."

Next up: The Nets will play the Miami Heat on Monday.

Too Much Barea; and Dirk Makes History, passes Shaquille O’Neal to place 6th on the NBA’s all-time scoring list

For a moment, it almost looked like the Brooklyn Nets were going to give their fans an early Christmas gift. After battling for 48 mins, the Nets pushed the Mavericks to an extra five, but too much J.J. Barea and Dirk Nowitzki proved to be the secret sauce that allowed the Mavs to escape Brooklyn with an 119-118 OT win, two days before Christmas.

The Nets fell to 8-21, (6-9 at home) while the Mavericks improved to 16-13, the 4th seed in the Western Conference.

When it boils down to the nitty gritty, late game execution is the only thing that cost the Nets on Wednesday night. The Nets led 118-117 with 41.7 seconds left in the OT period when Brook Lopez scored on a hook shot assisted by Shane Larkin, who made his return to the court after missing the last four games with a concussion. Twenty seconds later, Dirk returned the favor, giving the Mavs the go-ahead score up 119-118 with 19.2 seconds left in OT. It was all up to Jarrett Jack to win the game for the Nets and unfortunately, he came up short.

Photo (left to right): Brooklyn Nets center Brook Lopez and guard Jarrett Jack 

Brooklyn Nets guard Shane Larkin

After draining back-to-back threes earlier in the OT period that put the Nets in a position to have a shot for the win, Jack missed a fade-away jump shot just inside the three-point line and the game was decided. The tit-for-tat, you score, I score of what transpired in OT mirrors what the first 48 minutes entailed. The Mavericks controlled the first half of this game, enjoying leads of up to 16 points, thanks in large part to Barea and Nowitzki. At the 9:51 mark in the 2nd quarter, Dirk drained a baseline jump-shot, assisted by Barea to give the Mavs a 40-28 lead at the time, and in doing so, made history. With those two points, Dirk passed Shaquille O’Neal to move into 6th place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.

‘That was a moment that I will never forget for the rest of my life,” Nowitzki said post-game. “It’s surreal passing Shaq; all-time great, legend. Was able to compete against him for a long, long time…..I’m really going to enjoy this one when my career is over.”

In addition to Dirk, Barea made his own history. He scored a team-high 32 (career-high) points in 41 mins, added 11 assists, and burned the Nets every chance he could, hitting big shot after big shot, filling in for Deron Williams who recorded a DNP due to a hamstring strain. With the game tied 105 all and 1:26 left in the 4th quarter, Barea penetrated the lane, beating Larkin on a high pick-and-roll, shot a floater and received the foul for the and-1, putting the Mavs up by three, 108-105 with 12 seconds left in the 4th.

“I was just trying to take good shots and take advantage of guys setting good screens for me, Coach giving me the ball in high pick and rolls and it was working,” Barea said.

It was something the Nets could not stop but head coach Lionel Hollins targeted free-throws as a significant problem in the Nets most recent loss.

“If you want to just analyze stats, I think going six-for-14 from the free throw line was the game changer when you look at it in simplistic terms,” Hollins said. “But they played, we played and somebody, unfortunately, had to lose and it was us.”

If the Nets had won, Thaddeus Young would’ve received the game ball. The forward scored 29 points on 14-20 shooting and like Barea-made big play after big play. Young drained the desperation three to send the game into OT and also blocked Barea on the other end, on his desperation fade-away to win the game as time expired in the 4th.

Brooklyn Nets forward Thaddeus Young

“Just a tremendous effort,” Hollins said regarding Young. “His numbers stand out over other people, but I thought that we got the efforts that we needed and the extra efforts and getting on the floor for loose balls. It was just a great basketball game.”

During Young’s post-game session with the media, he said that there are no moral victories, but there is something the Nets can take from this game and it was their intensity and ability to recover and fight back. There were plenty of times during this game where it looked like the Nets were going to pack it in, look forward to the Christmas holiday, and save their energy for Saturday’s game hosting the Washington Wizards, but they didn’t.

They hung in there and Jack, who scored 13 points follows Young’s sentiments.

“It felt good to fight, it felt like we left it all out there, but like you said we’re not into moral victories. When we put that type of effort on the court we have to come away with Ws.”

Lopez who also scored 13 points believes the Nets can build on their effort against the Mavs.

“The way we’ve played for six quarters, you know these last games, roughly is how we want to play out the rest of the season. We really feel like we’ve come together as of late.”

Like Jack said, hopefully the effort the Nets are displaying as of late turns into wins and Saturday evening will be their chance to walk-the-walk.