Nets coach Jacque Vaughn says team ‘relaxed a little bit’ in win over Hornets
NEW YORK– Even though the Brooklyn Nets beat the Charlotte Hornets 122-116 on Wednesday, it didn’t come without a scare. Brooklyn was up by as many as 23 points in this game just to only win by six.
The Nets built that 23-point lead by displaying some impressive offense. In the first half, Brooklyn shot 29-of-48 from the field (60%) behind the impressive shooting of Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, and Seth Curry. Unfortunately for the Nets, the second half was a different story.
Charlotte won the third quarter 32-23 because of them shooting 11-of-22 from the field (50%) while Brooklyn was unable to stop Terry Rozier and Kelly Oubre Jr. Eventually, it came down to the Nets having the better players and being healthier for this game.
Nets coach Jacque Vaughn gave his take on how the Nets let up in the second half.
“Yeah, I think overall it was one of those games where we jumped out to a lead,” he explained. “Just to be honest with you, the NBA game where that’s a well-coached team, they were gonna continue to fight back, we relaxed a little bit and kind of paid for it. Good thing we have some pretty good players to execute at the end of the game, which we did for the most part, so I love that piece of it.”
To Vaughn’s point, the Nets were able to get some big shots from Irving down the stretch in order to hold off the Hornets and come away with a win.
“We just got too comfortable and let them start to get where they want to to the rim, to the paint,” Vaughn added. “Too many times.”
The Nets will look to build off this win when they take on the Atlanta Hawks on Friday.
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Player grades: Kyrie Irving scores 33 to lead Nets over Hornets
