I’m not going to go too long with this recap because of how awful it was, but I’ll give you guys the basics in four main bullet points:
1. The Nets got off to a crazy hot start, going up by as much as 16 in the first quarter. Then, they built a 38-19 lead early in the second quarter before watching it dwindle to seven points. Fear not, though, Brooklyn responded with a 9-2 run to finish off the first half with a 63-49 advantage.
2. The wretched third quarter–mentioned in roughly every game recap on this here website–was in full force tonight in Phoenix. The Suns scored the first nine points of the second half before finally tying the game at the 4:45 mark of the frame on an Eric Bledsoe three and even taking the lead for a second on an Alex Len shot.
3. But then, the Nets managed to close out nicely yet again and were up six heading into the fourth quarter. They carried on this solid play for the beginning of the quarter and kept rebuffing the Suns’ advances and were able to hold onto a seven-point lead.
4. The beginning of the end was at the 7:26 mark when Miles Plumlee got free for an easy layup. That started a 7-0 Phoenix run that culminated in a Gerald Green jumper that put the Suns up 93-92. After a Deron Williams jumper gave the Nets the lead back quickly, Jeff Hornacek’s team ran away with it as Brooklyn became unable to get either a stop or a decent offensive possession.
Yeah, it was a pretty bad loss, even for a team that always seems to be chock full of them. Just a few days after Joe Johnson called out his teammates for “being selfish,” he was terrible down the stretch. Joe missed multiple shots at the game wound down and committed a costly turnover that basically sealed the loss. It wasn’t like him, but he can’t falter like that after saying that to his team.
Some other observations I had from the game: It always comes down to this, but outside of the general bad defense and poor shot selection, the Nets lost this game for two main reasons: turnovers and free throws. They committed a god awful 19 turnovers and missed seven of their 32 free throws. A rough patch of the third quarter was when Mason Plumlee wiffed on a pair of free throws only to be followed by Alan Anderson doing the same a possession later. Meanwhile, the Suns missed just three of their 29 free throws. The Suns won free throw points 26-25, which made a big difference in this game…Gerald Green. You remember that name, right? He was a Net for a part of the 2011-12 season and tonight, scored a game-high 28 points on just 15 shots in 27 minutes. Oh yeah, he came off the bench too. Along with fellow reserve Isaiah Thomas, the pair combined for 49 points and led the Suns from being blown out to embarrassing a stunned Nets team. Neither of them started this game, but they certainly finished it…Brook Lopez grabbed three rebounds the whole game and missed all of five shots he took in the fourth quarter. As I said before, Joe Johnson wasn’t much better. Simply, the Nets aren’t going to win if their top players don’t step up…Mirza and Bojan were deadly from deep. Only if the rest of the team could hit shots in as opportune times as they do…I’m done. This ran longer than I thought it would. This team needs to turn it around right now or this loss could lead to a lot more. It’s unacceptable to blow a 19-point lead with as much ease as they did. Horrible.
Looking Ahead
The Nets try to stay above .500 tomorrow night as they continue their road trip against the Golden State Warriors.
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