Maybe it was the 20-point lead. Or the three-game winning streak. Or the two earlier victories against the foe they were playing.
Whatever the case, the Nets clearly overlooked the Hornets on Wednesday and got stung.
They won’t be making the same mistake Saturday, or sleeping on the defending champion Raptors up in Toronto.
“We want to continue to do better,” Spencer Dinwiddie said. “Obviously we’ve got a tough little stretch coming up. So that narrative could continue if we lose to Toronto in Toronto, even though they’re one of the top teams in the East. We just need to try to get the next game, folks; 82 games is a long time. We’ve been winning so far; let’s just keep it rolling.”
It wasn’t just the loss to Charlotte, but the way the Nets lost.
The Nets came in having won nine of 12 since losing Kyrie Irving, including a pair of victories over the Hornets. And they were cruising along with a 17-point third-quarter cushion before blowing it in a late collapse at Barclays Center.
“Yes, it’s a wake-up call,” Jarrett Allen said. “After we lose a game like this, credit to them still, but once we lose a game like this, we’re going to have to prepare extra hard for the next game. We’ll look at our mistakes and improve on them.”
Much has been made of the Nets’ soft early slate. They’re 10-5 against losing teams, but just 3-6 against winning ones — including 0-3 on the road.
They’ll get tested in a tough back-to-back, facing the Raptors, 16-8 despite the loss of Kawhi Leonard. Then they host the 76ers, the Atlantic Division-runners-up, the next day in a playoff rematch.
“It speaks to their championship mentality,” Dinwiddie said of the Raptors. “Obviously they lost a great player, but it speaks to their collective effort and their collective will to win. It shows why they deserved the championship last year that they won. It’s kind of like what’s been going on during our win streak.
“If you hold a team to 100 points or less, you always have a puncher’s chance at winning. We’re all NBA players — we can all score and we have enough skill in this locker room to score 100 points, just like they do. If they have an elite defense that they can hold everybody under 100, they have a chance to win every single game. The more consistent they are and the more stifling they are, the better their win probability.”
