The NBA’s longest winning streak ended Saturday with a thud, the sound of the red-hot Nets crashing back down from Cloud 9.
The Nets were undersized and undermanned, playing without Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant. But they aren’t using any of that an alibi for getting thrashed, 115-98, by Dallas at Barclays Center.
“No, this is a no-excuse team. If you’re on the floor, you’re going to play as hard as you can. They just got the best of us, and they got the win. That’s all it really was,” said Jeff Green, forced out of the game as well. “It’s not about us running out of gas or anything. We just didn’t come ready to play and they won.”
Not only did Irving’s scratch to rest his surgically repaired right shoulder pare the Big 3 down to a Big 1 in James Harden, the Nets also saw Tyler Johnson ruled out just before tipoff with a migraine and Green’s own shoulder injury removed him with 3:17 left in the third.
By then, the Nets trailed, 91-76, and fell behind by as much as 22. And by the time it was over, the loss snapped an eight-game winning streak that’d been the longest in the league, and the team’s best since 2005-06. It also squandered a chance for the Nets (22-13) to take over first place in the Eastern Conference.
James Harden, who struggled in the second half, goes up for a shot during the Nets’ 115-98 loss to the Mavericks. AP“I think everyone’s frustrated that we just had a little, just shorter obviously options,” coach Steve Nash said. “You’re missing two All-Star starters, but even beyond that, Jeff went out, Tyler couldn’t play. It just stretched everything and put us in territory where a lot of guys hadn’t had a lot of minutes together.
“So, frustrating. But that’s the nature of this season. I’ve said that time and time again. We’re going to have all sorts of nights where we’re going to mix and match, play different things, and I think we weren’t quite good enough. But Dallas played well, and one or two too many factors that went against us.”
Predictably disjointed, the Nets turned the ball over 19 times to hands the Mavericks 32 points and saw their hot streak cooled off.
Harden finished with 29 points, seven rebounds and six assists. He got little help and committed an uncharacteristic six turnovers. When asked to surmise the cause of the careless play, Harden pointed the finger at himself.
“I mean, me. I had six turnovers. A lot of them were careless, a lot of them were just not good plays, trying to thread the needle and whatnot,” Harden said. “You give an offensive team like that an opportunity, and they did a great job of capitalizing. We’ve just got to be better. I’ve got to be better individually in securing the ball. And we will be better.”
Green — who’d missed the prior two games with the shoulder contusion — and Bruce Brown each had 12 points but were the only other Nets in double figures.
Dallas (16-16) had six in double figures, led predictably by Luka Doncic who had 27 points, seven assists and six rebounds. But unlike Harden, he had help.
Kristaps Porzingis finished with 18 points, and gave Dallas a Texas-sized height edge, too tall for Green and too mobile for DeAndre Jordan. In the end, the Nets couldn’t capitalize on the 76er’ loss to Cleveland and stayed a half-game behind the East leaders.
With the score knotted at 24-all on a Harden four-point play, the Mavs responded with the next 10 unanswered points, part of a 16-2 run that put the game away. The Nets fell behind 40-26 and never recovered, losing for the first time since Feb. 9.
“We’ve just got to play better. That’s it. Whoever is in the lineup and suited up has to be better, and that starts with me,” Harden said. “Players assess their own body if they can go out there and compete, and whoever is out there on the floor and is suited up has got to be ready to go.”
