The Brooklyn Nets were on the losing end of their New Year's Day matchup against the Atlanta Hawks on Friday, 114-96. After the disappointing defeat, Nets veteran forward Jeff Green emerged as a rallying voice for Brooklyn, whose strong message for his teammate received the full backing of Nets superstar Kevin Durant.
Brooklyn couldn't find their range from distance against the Hawks, going 7-of-37 on their three-point attempts all evening long. Green made it a point to remind his team that these are the type of situations that the Nets will need to battle through — a notion that Durant seconded after the loss:
“We can’t rely on us just making shots, Jeff Green said that in the locker room,” Durant said on a Zoom call with reporters, via Nick Friar of USA TODAY SPORTS. “I totally agreed. We’re going to have days where guys ain’t going to make shots, but we gotta hang out hat on the defensive side of the ball.”
Durant was spectacular on Friday, finishing with a game-high 28 points, with eight rebounds, four assists, a steal, and two blocks, but even the former MVP went only 2-of-7 from distance against Atlanta.
Green also shared his thoughts on the recent defeat, reiterating how he believes the Nets should learn from such an experience:
“This is a long season. The main goal is at the end of the season, it’s not right now,” Green said on a Zoom call, via Yahoo Sports. “So, if we continue to watch film, learn where we can better ourselves, better our team, find ways we can helps this team win, we’ll get to the end goal. But right now, we just have to focus on what we need to do to accomplish to win these games that we should win to prepare us for where we wanna be.”
Brooklyn is now 3-3 to start the season, and they will hope to return to winning ways when they return to action on Sunday in a matchup against the 1-5 Washington Wizards.
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