For the first time this season, the Brooklyn Nets rolled over en route to a blowout loss. After leading by 13 in the first quarter Wednesday vs. the Boston Celtics, Jordi Fernandez's squad let go of the rope during a 139-114 throttling at Barclays Center.
The first-time NBA head coach didn't hold back on his team's poor effort following the defeat.
“I'm okay with losing, but I'm not okay with, at one point in the game, not fighting,” Fernandez said. “You can never, ever, ever, quit or look defeated, whatever the case may be. We have to continue to do things the right way and if one night, the other team is better than you, then you gotta respect it. But this — flashes of not doing the right things — this is not what we want to be at all.”
“And we haven't done it. It's just easier [to give in] against adversity. Whatever you want to call ‘adversity,' to me, it's all excuses. In the NBA, it is what it is. Everybody deals with stuff and you don't want to be finding excuses. We have more than enough to be better than this. To me, that's plain and simple.”
The Nets had a response for nearly every Celtics punch during Friday's overtime loss at TD Garden. Their effort as Wednesday's game progressed was a stark contrast. For a team with a high-end talent deficiency, the results were as expected.
Nets effort leaves much to be desired during blowout loss to Celtics
After a competitive first half, Boston outscored Brooklyn 74-54 in the second. The Nets lost the offensive rebounding battle 12-3 and the second-chance points battle 18-8. Their top-ranked three-point defense was nowhere to be found, as the Celtics shot 22-of-46 (47.8 percent) from distance.
“Just the things that we can control, we weren’t controlling tonight. That’s why we got whooped,” Ziaire Williams said. “We let them have too many offensive boards. We had turnovers, allowed lobs, didn't load to the ball in transition… That’s a great team and anytime you have one mistake, one little mishap, the margin of error is so low. You gotta be on point or they’ll expose you, and that’s what they did tonight.”
“We just let them stomp on our necks. They definitely had more fight.”
Jayson Tatum dominated during the Celtics win, posting 36 points and 10 assists on 12-of-19 shooting from the field and 5-of-6 from three. Jaylen Brown added 24 points, while Payton Pritchard chipped in 23.
When asked about Fernandez's messaging following the loss, Nic Claxton said his coach didn't mince words.
“S–t. He just pretty much stood on business,” Claxton replied. “Like, we need to play hard. That's not the way you lose, you know? Of course, you never want to lose games, but that's not the way that you lose. We didn't fight all the way through.”
Williams led the Nets with 23 points on 8-of-14 shooting, continuing a promising start after Brooklyn acquired him as a salary dump from the Memphis Grizzlies this summer. Cam Thomas added 17 points and three assists on 5-of-11 shooting, while Dennis Schroder posted 16 points and three assists on 6-of-10 shooting.
Brooklyn shouldn't have any issue finding motivation during their upcoming games. The Nets will remain in New York for back-to-back matchups with the crosstown rival Knicks on Friday and Sunday at Madison Square Garden.
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