Nets unravel against Hawks, fall back to looking more like championship pretender
NEW YORK — When the Nets are good, they’re one of the best in the league. When they’re bad, it gets ugly, as was proved when the Atlanta Hawks blasted the Nets in Brooklyn, 114-96, on Friday night.
The Nets were horrendous for three quarters. They shot 5 of 29 from 3, were askew defensively and didn’t match the intensity brought by the young, fun, run-and-gun Hawks.
Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving saved the Nets against the Hawks on Wednesday. There were no heroics in store the second time around in the Nets’ worst loss of the early season. They are now 3-3, looking more like a pretender than a championship contender.
At the 8:30 mark in the fourth quarter, Atlanta sharpshooter Kevin Huerter knocked down a 3 that gave the Hawks a 20-point lead. It was that kind of night for the Hawks, who made 16 3s at a 41% clip. All five Atlanta starters scored in double figures, the league’s highest-scoring offense on full display at Barclays Center.
Meanwhile, the Nets endured Irving’s first bad game: A 6-of-21 shooting performance that he’ll need to file away and forget fast.
Durant scored 28 points on 10-of-21 shooting. If there was any bright spot in this game, it was his durability, having fallen to the ground a number of times and spryly popping back to his feet. For the Hawks, though, that kind of performance is the best they can hope for. Durant is a threat to go for 30 or 40 any night.
Hawks head coach Lloyd Pierce said that the key to beating Brooklyn wasn’t stopping their superstar duo, but stopping the reserve shooters who pinched them in Game 1. Taurean Prince and Landry Shamet combined for 10-of-10 shooting in the Nets’ Wednesday win over the Hawks. On Friday, Prince made just one of his two shots, and Shamet missed all four of his.
The Hawks first built their lead in the second quarter, creating a 13-point separation on a barrage of 3s. Nets head coach Steve Nash declined to call a timeout.
The Nets continue to miss Spencer Dinwiddie, the starting shooting guard who partially tore his ACL and is out an indefinite amount of time for rehab. Nash opted to start Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot in Dinwiddie’s place. Luwawu-Cabarrot shot 1 of 5 in his first game as a starter, then shot 1 of 7 and ended up on the bench in the fourth quarter, with Nash opting to go with Caris LeVert.
With just under three minutes left in the fourth quarter, Nash emptied the bench.
The Nets have a lot to learn, and they have to learn in a short time, in a condensed season with minimal practice time, with a roster still learning to play with one another — and now re-learning in a world without Dinwiddie.
Their record is not indicative of a team heading toward a championship. At 3-3, the Nets are just that: average.
