For around 42 minutes tonight, the Hawks completely controlled the home team Nets, grabbing an early lead and not relinquishing it a Joe Johnson layup–against his old team–gave Brooklyn a 109-108 advantage with 3:39 to play. Problem is the Nets wouldn’t score again in over three minutes and then allowed Al Horford to get a wide open dunk that would seal the game.
After a Deron Williams floater put the Nets back in front by one with 33 ticks on the clocks, the Hawks immediately responding with a beautiful after-timeout play to get Horford a easy hoop, assisted by inattentive defense by Brook Lopez. On the other end, for some godless reason, Lionel Hollins ran a play centered around getting Jarrett Jack–a 25 percent three-point shooter, mind you–a look at a triple in the corner. Of course, he missed but the Nets got the rebound and found Bojan Bogdanovic for a contested three, which he also missed.
Then, Atlanta got the board, Jeff Teague was fouled intentionally and knocked down both freebies. With just over two seconds left, the Nets were down three (114-111) and a chance to tie. The Hawks elected not to foul and Joe got a decent three off–albeit contested–that rolled around the rim for a little bit before falling off harmlessly. Game over and say goodbye to the No. 7 seed for the Nets.
Even without Paul Millsap (shoulder), Thabo Sefolosha (arrest) and Pero Antic (arrest), the Hawks dominating much of the first three quarters. Brooklyn was able to get within a point midway through the second frame, but mostly the Hawks were up by at least seven to eight points, as evidenced by their seven- and nine-point leads after the first and second quarters respectively.
Every time the Nets were able to hit a big three (rare, because they went 7-26 from deep as a team) or get a big stop, Brooklyn either committed a brutal turnover (13 as a team, leading to 23 Atlanta points) or allowed an open shot (Dennis Schroder, Shelvin Mack, Mike Scott and Al Horford all hit threes) to keep the Nets just outside of the Hawks’ reach.
That’s why, when Atlanta took a 94-82 lead into the final 12 minutes of play, it appeared as if the Nets had done all the damage they could do and were going to slink away to a tough loss. Instead, Brooklyn rolled off a 18-6 run after being down 102-91 with nine minutes left. This brought the Nets from holding a double-digit deficit to actually winning the game. Then, as I described above, they fubarred the final few minutes and lost a crucial game in the standings.
Coupled with a Celtics win over the Pistons, an idle Heat team and a Pacers win over the dreadful Knicks, the Nets are just a game ahead of Miami and Indiana. They have the tiebreaker with Indiana but don’t with the Heat, so that “lead” is minimal at best.
Assorted thoughts: Three Nets compiled double-doubles: Brook Lopez (26 points, 10 rebounds), Deron Williams (10 points, 13 assists) and Thaddeus Young (15 points, 11 rebounds). Brook was great as usual but he missed out on a big chance to get the Nets some points with less than two minutes to play. Jarrett Jack missed a jumper and Brook missed on three consecutive point-blank tip-in attempts before Thad got the board and missed a shot of his own. The Nets went 0-5 from the field on that possession and could have gotten some more cushion with another hoop. Oh well. Deron, meanwhile, had seven first quarter assists and made some tough shots but was 1-5 from three, even with some open chances that would have huge had they gone down. Also, Thaddeus was really solid even though his impact was lessened due to him fouling out late in the fourth. He was in foul trouble for much of the way only to have two questionable fouls called on him down the stretch that could/should have gone the other way. Still, his activity on the glass and on defense was vital….Alan Anderson missed his third-straight game with a sprained ankle suffered in last week’s win over the Raptors. The Nets are 1-2 without him, 0-2 against the Hawks….Jarrett Jack, even with his mindboggling shot that might have cost Brooklyn the game, provided a big boost off the bench in the second half. He scored 14 points on (admittedly) poor 3-10 shooting but was 8-8 from the free throw line and was a +9 in his 21 minutes. The big thing for him was his zero turnovers. Still, he needs to stop shooting all threes and all contested pull-up jumpers….Joe Johnson finished with 21 points and eight rebounds but was inconsistent again and missed a few very makeable three late in this game. He was just 3-9 from deep and really, really needs to get back to his trademark reliable form if the Nets are even going to make the playoffs….Mason Plumlee was exploited on defense and the glass for what feels like the seventh or eight game in a row. He was lucky Brook wasn’t in foul trouble because that allowed Mason to play just nine minutes. He has to improve and cannot be beaten on the glass by the likes of Mike Scott and DeMarre Carroll.
Onto the next one: Friday night at Barclays against the Wizards.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
