The euphoria one night earlier on the road begat a massive home letdown the next for the Nets.
Brooklyn followed its stirring comeback from 21 points down in Boston with a horrendous shooting performance at home Wednesday night, getting crushed, 118-79, by Memphis and booed off the court at Barclays Center.
Kenny Atkinson didn’t address the media until nearly 25 minutes after the game — more than twice as long as usual. Instead, he engaged his team in a lengthy team meeting, which Spencer Dinwiddie likened to the “airing of grievances” from “our little bitty Festivus,” the fictitious holiday from “Seinfeld.”
“The crowd let us know about it and they are 100 percent right. I think you feel that when it’s not there,” Atkinson said after the Nets’ sixth loss in their last eight games. “Forty-point losses, believe it or not happen in this league. But I think collectively we didn’t like our compete level and our spirit wasn’t where we needed it to be. And we talked about it in the locker room. Coaches and players having a good, old-fashioned great communication.”
Caris LeVert scored 14 points one night after netting a career-high 51 in Tuesday’s overtime win, but he and Dinwiddie (1-for-9, four points) combined to shoot 0-for-12 from 3-point range and 7-for-28 overall.
Taurean Prince scored 15 points and Chris Chiozza added 14 for the Nets, who were outscored 66-34 in the second half. They also collectively shot just 7-for-42 (16.7 percent) from long distance for the game, compared to Memphis’ 20-for-44 night from beyond the arc.
Nets’ DeAndre Jordan argues with the refs during a tough loss.Paul J. Bereswill“They scored a lot and we didn’t. … All the way around they made plays and we didn’t,” said Dinwiddie, who wouldn’t allow that fatigue was a factor following the rousing win the previous night. “We’re not in the business of making any excuses. We have to do what we need to do. This is our job.”
Josh Jackson netted 19 points, Tyus Jones had 18 and breakout rookie Ja Morant finished with 15 and five assists for the rising Grizzlies (31-31), the No. 8 team presently in the West, 3 ½ games ahead of No. 9 Sacramento.
“Give them credit, they played really hard. Obviously, you never want to downplay the other team after a heinie-whipping like this,” Dinwiddie said. “But we definitely had a lot of shots we should have made.”
The Nets overcame a 21-point deficit and hung on for an uplifting overtime win Tuesday night, with several reserves playing key roles down the stretch alongside LeVert, who erupted for 37 points in the fourth quarter and overtime.
Chiozza scored eight points down the stretch against the Celtics and made an impact again off the bench against the Grizzlies, scoring seven straight Nets points early in the second quarter for a 31-28 Brooklyn lead.
Dinwiddie, who didn’t reenter Tuesday’s game after he was pulled late in the third quarter, missed his first five shots against Memphis and finished the first half with just four points, shooting 0-for-5 from long distance.
Jones had 10 points and Morant had nine, including a driving dunk in the second quarter for a 52-45 Memphis lead at intermission. The Grizzlies extended cushion to 17 points in the third and opened the fourth on an 18-3 run — including 3s by Jackson, Jones and Kyle Anderson — to balloon the lead to 100-68 before the midpoint of the final period.
“Like I say, these are the moments where you really have to embrace the adversity,” said Atkinson, whose team remained a half-game ahead of Orlando for the No. 7 playoff position in the Eastern Conference. “But we’re obviously disappointed and frustrated that we couldn’t build off of a great win.
“Guys were a little frustrated we got down, we were missing shots, but we just didn’t have that fighting spirit that we normally do.”




