Bobcats 96
Nets 92
The Nets had lost five straight games, and – according to coach Lawrence Frank – along with them their taste for victory. Apparently it’s been replaced by the sour taste of defeat, their latest a humbling 96-92 loss to woebegone Charlotte that knocked them out of first place in the Atlantic Division.
Coming off their winless West Coast trip, one might think they’d come out hungry back on their homecourt. Facing a team with an NBA-worst 3-10 record, one might figure they’d get back in the win column. Turns out, one would’ve been underestimating just how deep a funk this team is in.
“It’s obvious we’re not playing 48 minutes, that’s why we’re losing,” said Frank, after his team’s first six-game skid in exactly two years. “We got off to a good start on the offensive end, but we just put up no resistance on the defensive end in the first half. I don’t know what to say right now.
“I’d think we’d want to be hungry for a win right now. We haven’t bought into what it’s going to take to win. We do it for a half. Games are too precious to not be committed as a group. It’s not just one guy. Right now, we’re not getting the job done as a team. It’s a team-wide problem.”
The Nets cut a 14-point lead to one late in the fourth-quarter, but got no closer. Vince Carter had 25 points and hit a foul shot to make it 92-90 with 1:02 left. But he was just 5-for-17 and missed a running baby-hook with a chance to tie in the final minute, a shot that bounced off the rim twice and rolled away.
Richard Jefferson (game-high 27) drove at the basket, and when the defense collapsed, he kicked it back out to a wide-open Carter for a potential go-ahead 3. But his shot was off to the right with 16.9 seconds left, and the Nets (5-9) lost to fall a half-game behind idle Philadelphia in the atrocious Atlantic Division.
“Teams are getting wide open looks. That’s something we’ve got to take more pride in,” said point guard Jason Kidd. “We’ve got to turn this around. It can start [tonight] in Boston.”
After allowing the second-lowest scoring team in the NBA to ring up 59 first-half points on 52.2-percent shooting, the defense that had blown second-half leads in Seattle, Portland and L.A. finally stiffened in a 37-point second half.
They clawed to within 88-87 when Kidd stripped Gerald Wallace and sailed in for a layup. But Bobcats center Primoz Brezec hit a fadeaway, Brevin Knight sank a foul shot and then Brezec another free throw with 1:43 left.
Carter hit a basket and then a free throw moments later to bring the Nets within a basket, but they never got over the hump. Rookie guard Adam Morrison (13 of his team-high 22 in the second half) and forward Sean May (20 off the bench) saw to that.
“We’ve been struggling with inconsistent play all year. We just haven’t done what we needed to,” Jefferson said. “They played harder, played more aggressively. Right now teams make a run and that’s pretty much the game.”
This is the third time in four years the Nets have gotten off to a slow start, but unlike when Kidd opened the season on the shelf, there is no MVP candidate on the horizon. They’ll need to work their way out of this malaise, starting tonight at the Celtics.
