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Spencer Dinwiddie spoke on the court after the Brooklyn Nets' 111-110 win over the Utah Jazz Sunday. And three words came out of his mouth that you wouldn't expect after a victory:
“We got lucky.”
That may be putting it lightly. After leading by 20 points with 6:25 remaining in the game, the Nets shot 2-of-6 with two turnovers to close the game. Dorian Finney-Smith and Spencer Dinwiddie both split a pair of free throws in the final minute to give Utah the ball down three with 10 seconds remaining. Head coach Jacque Vaughn instructed his team to foul on the inbounds with the Jazz in the bonus.
After Talen Horton-Tucker knocked down a pair to cut the lead to one, Seth Curry got the ball out of a timeout and was fouled. He would miss both free throws. In a nightmare turn of events, Utah was speeding down the floor with a chance to win the game. Lauri Markkanen kicked the ball to Kelly Olykyk, who drove the length of the floor and put up an off-balance shot that missed to help Brooklyn avoid a nightmare collapse.
Brutal pic.twitter.com/P7Asgmz0PO
— Jazz Lead (@JazzLead) April 2, 2023
The Nets put Utah in the bonus with 7:49 remaining in the fourth quarter, allowing them to draw frequent trips to the line while stopping the block. On top of his team's late-game offensive woes, head coach Jacque Vaughn said Brooklyn's lack of defensive “pride” was a key factor in the Jazz nearly overcoming the massive deficit:
“What we talked about as a team that we didn’t do well is we stopped the clock,” Vaughn said postgame. “So early we kept them in the bonus, so they were getting to the free-throw line without the clock running. How did they do that? Well they just put their heads down and drove the basketball. So being able to contain the basketball by having individual defensive pride to keep the ball in front of you was a big reason why they got back in the game.”
Nic Claxton said the fourth-quarter collapse is indicative of Brooklyn's inconsistencies sustaining a high level of play for four-quarters:
“Just discipline,” he pointed to regarding the near-collapse. “I think that's been a thing for us especially since the trade just being able to play a full game that's something we got to do a better job of.”
Mikal Bridges had trouble finding his stroke in the win, shooting 9-of-25 from the field and 1-of-8 from three. However, the breakout forward still managed to score a game-high 30 points, a product of 11-of-13 shooting from the free-throw line.
Bridges has become increasingly crafty drawing fouls as he gains more experience as a lead-scorer with the Nets. The 26-year-old is attempting 6.9 free throws per game in Brooklyn, the 14th-most in the league during that span. He's converting on 90.6 percent of those attempts, the NBA's best percentage among 42 players attempting 5.1 or more per game.
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Sunday's performance marks a career-best six-straight games scoring 25-plus for Bridges.
Spencer Dinwiddie dished out a game-high 12 assists in the win, continuing a career-best stretch in that area of his game. Dinwiddie led the NBA in total assists with 146 total assists in March.
Executed to perfection pic.twitter.com/ffk4cZOuVx
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) April 2, 2023
Spence to Clax x2 pic.twitter.com/S3CRjSf9aE
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) April 2, 2023
Cam Johnson extended his most productive stretch as a Net, scoring 18 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field and 8-of-9 from the free-throw line. Claxton was also instrumental in Brooklyn building the early lead, scoring 14 points on 7-of-8 shooting to go with seven rebounds and two steals.
Just 23 games in, Brooklyn's new-look roster has had extremely limited practice time, something that is evident in their struggles closing games. Despite a disappointing fourth quarter Sunday, Vaughn said there is plenty his young team can take from the win:
“We take a lot away from this game,” he said. “We were able to go through a lot of things, whether it was inbounds at the end of a game, whether it was getting our free-throw lineup in, whether it was getting our big lineup in to rebound, whether it was defending at the end of a game. Situations you can’t replicate in practice, which is great for us. There’s only one winner and one loser in every single game. We won, so we’re gonna take the win and keep this thing moving.”
With the victory, the Nets' magic number to clinch the Eastern Conference's sixth seed is down to two. Vaughn's squad will have an opportunity to grab one of those wins when they return to the Barclays Center Tuesday to host the Minnesota Timberwolves.
