3 takeaways from the Brooklyn Nets’ 121-99 loss to the 76ers
The Brooklyn Nets (6-7) have had a tough schedule to start the season as they have played seven teams with winning records heading into Monday’s games, including playing the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat twice. Brooklyn has been tested this season and their latest opponent may have given them their worst loss of the season to date.
On Sunday, the Nets lost 121-99 to the Philadelphia 76ers despite the fact that Brooklyn was only down 23-22 heading into the second quarter. However, the second quarter is where the 76ers began to separate from the Nets as Philadelphia used a 20-5 run over the final 4:05 in the period to go into halftime leading Brooklyn 61-49.
It only worsened for the Nets in the third quarter as the 76ers extended their 12-point lead to 21 with 6:22 left in the quarter. At which point it seemed that Brooklyn had little hope of getting back into the game. Here are three takeaways from Sunday’s blowout loss:
Too Many Turnovers/Lack Of Opponent Turnovers
Brooklyn had two issues in this department as they turned the ball over 15 times, resulting in 17 points for Philadelphia, while also forcing the 76ers into just five turnovers. According to Basketball Reference, Brooklyn is currently 3-3 when they turn the ball over at least 15 times and are 2-6 when their opponent has 10 or less turnovers.
Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn has said multiple times throughout the course of this season that Brooklyn is trying to correct both issues. Despite having a team that has length and athleticism throughout the rotation, Brooklyn is last in the NBA in opponent turnover percentage.
Lack Of Pace
On Sunday against the 76ers, the Nets had a pace of 93.2 which would be the slowest pace in the league by far if extrapolated for the entire season. That was due to the fact that despite the game finishing with a total of 220 points, Brooklyn got up just 81 shots.
It was the lowest amount of shot attempts they’ve had in a game this season and the Nets’ offense is based on getting up and down the floor and getting up a lot of shots. Brooklyn has been struggling with maintaining a high pace ever since Ben Simmons and Cam Thomas have been out of the lineup.
Finishing Quarters
One of the things that Jacque Vaughn has been trying to get the team to improve on is finishing quarters. Unfortunately, Brooklyn gave up a 20-5 run to Philadelphia in the last 4:05 of the second quarter that took all of the momentum away from the Nets.
For the season, Brooklyn, according to Team Rankings, is in the top-10 in the NBA in points scored in the first and fourth quarters, but are just 27th in second-quarter scoring and 18th in third-quarter scoring. It seems like an issue that the Nets will have to solve if they want to beat the better teams in the league.
