The Brooklyn Nets came into Oklahoma City Tuesday after two grueling wins over the Minnesota Timberwolves and Denver Nuggets. Brooklyn failed to end a five-game road trip on a high note as they squandered an early lead in a 121-107 loss to the Thunder.
After the Nets led by 10 at the break, a third-quarter collapse quickly surrendered control to Oklahoma City. The matchup was Brooklyn's third game in five nights with the first two going down to the last second. The Nets' starting unit saw extended time in both of those wins, and there was no let-up Tuesday with every starter playing at least 34 minutes.
Head coach Jacque Vaughn called the heavy workload a challenge to the group when asked about fatigue playing a factor in the loss:
“I went reverse and played the starting five heavy minutes. There’s something phycological and mental about that,” Vaughn said postgame. “Can you be at the end of a road trip and somehow manage to get a win? Can you play heavy minutes and worry about the next day the next day? So it was a little bit of a challenge for that group tonight to see how they would respond.
That’s what playoff basketball is about. You’re gonna have to play every other day and you’re gonna play high minutes. Can you get a win? Can you respond the next day? Prepping that a little bit was kind of my psychological look at it.”
It's safe to say Vaughn's squad did not respond to the challenge. The Thunder doubled the Nets' offensive rebounds (6-3) in the second half while Brooklyn lost the turnover battle 17-9 leading to a 20-11 fastbreak point disparity. That allowed Oklahoma City to attempt 17 more shots on the night, which proved to be the difference. If Vaughn was testing his team's grit Tuesday, it's hard to see him walking away pleased with stretches like this:
A third-quarter three-point barrage during which the Thunder shot 8-of-15 eviscerated the Nets' halftime lead, but the head coach was more interested in his team's hustle, or lack thereof, when breaking down the disappointing second half.
“The three-point shooting wasn’t a high priority for us. Lu Dort came out and made some shots to start the half, but it was the plays before that,” Vaughn said. “Their ability to impact winning from the offensive rebounding to the 50/50 balls we didn’t get. Those are things that we can control.
We talked about every possession for this team matters. Every 50/50 ball matters. You’ve got to get dirty, you’ve got to get on the floor and you’ve got to get that possession. You’ve gotta take on the battle of boxing out your man every single time. And you’ve gotta come back and help your teammate if you’re guy doesn’t go to rebound. We didn’t do that often enough and we paid for it tonight.”
Mikal Bridges did his best to keep Brooklyn in the game down the stretch, scoring 18 of his 34 points in the second half. The newly-acquired Net logged 38 minutes after playing 38 in Denver and 48 in Minnesota. Despite that, the 26-year-old promptly shut down questions about fatigue as a reason for his team's second-half struggles:
“No, they just played harder than us,” Bridges said. “We had time to relax and get our bodies right. They just played harder. They got the loose balls, got the 50/50 balls. They just outplayed us in that second half.”
While Mikal Bridges has flashed star potential during his short time in Brooklyn, the days of the Nets being bailed out by other-worldly performances from Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving are over. That margin of error that so frequently allowed for lethargic stretches is gone, something Cam Johnson recognized after Oklahoma City punched Brooklyn in the mouth in the third quarter Tuesday:
“We know how we need to play to win,” Jonhson said. “Sometimes it's scrappy, gutty and dirty. We're not always playing pretty out there. And sometimes that's how the game starts to favor us. We need to get back to that and continue to compete at a high level… We have to control what we can control.”
Following the loss, Brooklyn sits a half-game back of the Knicks in sixth place with 13 left to play. The Nets' schedule doesn't get any easier as they return for a four-game homestand with matchups against the Kings and Nuggets before consecutive games versus the Cavaliers.
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