NETS SNAP, CRACKLE AND POP
OKLAHOMA CITY – There are better ways to end a road trip than what the Nets did here last night. Like maybe board the wrong plane and fly to balmy Siberia.
Not even a 24-1 streak by the Nets’ three rookies and two guys who rarely play during a 31-12 fourth quarter could salvage this disaster.
“It was a very poor effort,” lamented coach Lawrence Frank.
“The first half wasn’t great,” said Devin Harris, “and we had one of those third quarters where we couldn’t score. We couldn’t stop anybody either.”
That’ll hurt. So the Nets observed Vince Carter’s 32d birthday, plus the fifth anniversary of Frank’s hiring and the end of a grueling four-game road trip, with one of their worst efforts of the season, a 94-85 defeat to the Thunder.
“Our goal was to come out and end the road trip on a positive note, try to tie things up. But it didn’t work out that way,” understated Carter, who endured a 2-of-12 shooting, eight-point nightmare.
Thus, the Nets, who ended a season-high, five-game skid by winning in Memphis Saturday, limped home from a 1-3 trip at 20-25, again a season-high five games under .500.
After being totally outworked and ending the first half down 11, the Nets for all intents hopped that flight to Siberia before the third quarter. The third started with the Nets down 11. It ended with them down by 28.
“We’ve got to have a better effort. I don’t know if we came in thinking about going home or where our minds where but it definitely wasn’t in the game,” said Harris (10 points, 4-of-17 shooting). “We came out flat, they came out with tons of energy.”
The deficit hit 30 in the Fourth, at 88-58, when the Thunder started playing clown ball and the Nets subs played with the passion lacking all night.
The Nets scored 20 straight points in the 24-1 barrage that forced the Thunder to re-insert Kevin Durant (18 points) with 1:03 left.
“We [wanted to] just put on pressure and get a run, try to cut the lead,” said Ryan Anderson, who teamed with Brook Lopez, Mo Ager, Chris Douglas-Roberts and Trenton Hassell for much of the way too late rally. “But it doesn’t in any way, shape or form make up for how we performed the first three quarters.”
Especially that third quarter. The Nets missed their first six shots and 13 of their first 14. The Thunder knocked in their initial nine tries. The Thunder had five guys score in double figures, including ex-Net Nenad Krstic (11 points). Lopez led the Nets’ scoring with 18 points. Josh Boone had 11 and Harris, shooting 4-of-17, scored 10.
“[Before] the game, the last thing we talked about: you got to win the free throw, rebound game, you can’t get out-worked, and we totally got out-worked,” Frank said.
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Carter expected to start his birthday hearing old man jokes. And he did.
“He started his career with the Raptors, now he’s technically a dinosaur,” Keyon Dooling joked.
Thunder 94 Nets 85
