Slow start haunts Nets in fourth straight loss

Brooklyn gives up 36 first-quarter points in 104-99 defeat to Kings

December 21, 2017 By John Torenli, Sports Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Zach Randolph shoots over Tyler Zeller during the first half of the Sacramento Kings’ 104-99 victory over the Brooklyn Nets Wednesday night at the Barclays Center. AP Photo by Frank Franklin II

Share this:

It’s not how you start, but how you finish.

Unless, of course, you’re the Brooklyn Nets.

Our borough’s NBA franchise continued its disturbing trend of listless starts Wednesday night at Downtown’s Barclays Center, falling into an early hole before falling just short at the end of a 104-99 loss to the Sacramento Kings in front of 13,179 paying customers on the corners of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues.

“Giving up 36 points in the first quarter, they have good players on the other side and you can’t get in a hole like that,” Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson lamented after his team dropped its fourth straight season-high tying game.

“It is a disappointment in our defense and our defensive mentality to start the game.”

The Nets (11-16) have dropped five of six overall since an inspiring come-from-behind 100-95 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder in Mexico City on Dec. 7. Their current four-game slide has seen them get outscored by a whopping 124-99 in the first quarter of those contests.

Giving up an average of 31 points over the first 12 minutes of any game is a recipe for disaster, especially in Brooklyn’s case.

The Nets are playing shorthanded with newly acquired center Jahlil Okafor still working himself into game shape, along with the continued extended absences of backcourt mates D’Angelo Russell and Jeremy Lin.

Atkinson, who has implored his starting unit to shake off its recent run of early game ennui, watched helplessly from the bench as Brooklyn allowed Sacramento (11-20) to hit just over three-quarters of its shots (76 percent) in the opening quarter.

The Kings would run out to a 64-48 halftime lead before the Nets even began to claw their way back into contention.

“I think to start the game we were kind of just waiting to see what happens instead of being the aggressor,” noted Atkinson, whose team last lost four straight from Oct. 27 to Nov. 3.

“Our activity isn’t high enough and you know it’s one through five — it’s not — it’s really one through 15, and I think when we brought that second group in it was similar. We didn’t get stops and not good enough.”

But somehow it nearly was.

Spencer Dinwiddie scored a team-high 16 points, DeMarre Carroll added 15 and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson added 14 and 10 rebounds for the Nets, who cut the lead to 101-99 on Dinwiddie’s free throw with 1:10 to play.

But Allen Crabbe misfired on a potential tying 18-footer and Dinwiddie clanged a go-ahead 3-pointer with 27 ticks remaining before the Kings iced the game at the line in the closing moments.

“I don’t know what you want to call it. Lack of focus, lack of attention to detail, lack of effort,” Dinwiddie said of Brooklyn’s penchant for starting out slow.

“I don’t know what you want to call it. Sixty-four points in the first half is inexcusable, regardless of what team you play. So that’s the game.”

George Hill scored a game-high 22 points and Zach Randolph added 21 points and eight rebounds for Sacramento, which was able to hold on for its second straight win despite netting just 18 points in the fourth quarter.

“Just got to play harder, play with more energy, make it tougher for guys,” said Caris LeVert, who spearheaded Brooklyn’s late charge with seven of his 14 points off the bench coming in the final 12 minutes.

“I feel like they were in a great rhythm to start the game, and when guys at this level get comfortable, it’s hard to stop them.”

Though he stopped short of announcing that he’d shuffle his starting lineup, Atkinson admitted that something needs to change quickly if the Nets are the avoid becoming irrelevant on the NBA landscape for a third consecutive season.

“I think four losses in a row — we have to look at everything,” he said. “We have to look at the start, what our lineup looks like to start. I definitely think we have to look at it. We have to analyze it and see if there is something to change up. We will look at that in the next day and see what is going on there.”

The Nets hope to salvage the finale of this thus-far fruitless three-game homestand when they host the Washington Wizards at Barclays on Friday night.

How they start that game might go a long way toward determining whether they are able to finish this season with any hope of grabbing an Eastern Conference playoff spot.

Brooklyn, which is currently five games behind the arch rival New York Knicks for the eighth and final playoff spot in the East, will embark on a five-game road trip to close out December following its meeting with the Wizards.

“We have lost it these last four games,” Atkinson admitted. “It is a little perplexing this game after I thought we had two good days to get ready for this game. I was hoping we had the juice to compete at a higher level. But again, perplexed with the first quarter and the first half in general.”

Nothing But Net: Despite enjoying a stretch of strong defensive showings earlier this month, the Nets still rank 28th on the 30-team circuit in opponents’ points allowed, yielding just over 110 per contest this season … Atkinson continued to defend his decision to sit Okafor until he is ready to run up and down the floor with his new teammates. “He was not playing,” Atkinson told the Associated Press regarding Okafor logging just 25 total minutes with Philadelphia this season before being acquired by the Nets. “You can do as much off-court stuff as you want and run lines and get on the treadmill, but basketball shape, basketball rhythm is a little different. So, we’re working toward getting him up to speed there. He’s working his tail off with the coaches and our performance team.”