Improved Nets still have ‘long way to go’

Suffer deflating season-ending loss in Boston to Celtics backups

April 12, 2018 By John Torenli, Sports Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Instead of walking off the court with their season-high fourth straight win in Boston Wednesday night, the Nets instead trudged off following a deflating loss to the playoff-bound Celtics’ back-ups. AP Photo by Elise Amendola

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While the Red Sox and Yankees were brawling at Fenway Park on Wednesday night, the Brooklyn Nets were taking it on the chin at TD Garden.

“We’ve got a long way to go,” Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson admitted following his team’s regular season-ending 110-97 loss to the playoff-bound Boston Celtics in front of a sellout crowd of 18,624, many of whom were checking their phones for updates on the fight-filled Yanks-Red Sox tilt 2 1/2 miles away.

Winners of a season-high three straight and a season-best 7-5 over their previous 12 games, the Nets (28-54) entered this finale hoping to build on the success of the past several weeks.

Instead, they received a painful reminder of just how far away they truly are from competing for a postseason berth, something they have not earned since the 2014-15 campaign.

Despite facing a Boston squad that was resting most, if not all, of its regulars for the upcoming playoffs, Brooklyn was outrebounded by a whopping 62-44, and shot just 27 percent (11-for-40) from 3-point range.

The Nets also watched part-time player Aron Baynes light them up for a career-high 26 points and 14 rebounds, sending Brooklyn into the offseason on a low note.

“Disappointed in tonight, but I’m going to look at the positive and look at the way we finished the season playing much better,” Atkinson, noting his team’s eight-game improvement over last year’s NBA-worst 20-62 mark.

“Definitely trending upwards. Obviously, Boston’s program is a little ahead of us right now.”

A little ahead might be putting it lightly.

The Celtics are slotted as the No. 2 seed in the upcoming Eastern Conference playoffs, despite losing superstar Kyrie Irving to a season-ending knee injury last month.

Nik Stauskas led the Nets with 18 points off the bench and Allen Crabbe, coming off Monday’s career-high 41-point effort against Chicago here in Downtown Brooklyn, added 16 for Brooklyn, which by 10 at the half and never seriously challenged thereafter.

Though their improvement on last season’s record was tied for the second-highest in the East, the Nets were eager to put an exclamation point on their season-ending run against the Celtics.

But they committed 16 turnovers and were outscored in the paint, 64-50, as the weaknesses that derailed their second season under Atkinson reared their ugly heads at a most inopportune time.

D’Angelo Russell, who has staked his claim as the Nets’ on-court “quarterback” over the past few months since returning from a knee injury, managed only 11 points on 5-of-12 shooting while committing a team-high four turnovers to go with only three assists.

Caris LeVert also had 11 points and rookie Jarrett Allen added 10, though he proved no match for the previously unheralded Baynes along the interior.

Sharp-shooting Joe Harris sat out the finale with an ankle injury, but figures to be back in the fold next season as the Nets will once again try to rise out of the bottom half of the league.

Brooklyn played its share of tight contests in addition to losing five games in overtime this year.

The Nets also dropped their first eight games in February, dashing any hope that they might be in the mix for the East’s eighth and final playoff spot down the stretch.

But with another summer of staunch player development and perhaps some trading up in June’s draft, general manager Sean Marks and Atkinson will once again begin preaching a message for hope for a better future in Brooklyn in 2018-19.

“We have a lot of catching up to do,” Atkinson ceded. “But that’ll give us more motivation this offseason to get better.”

Nothing But Net: Allen, whose first campaign in Brooklyn was a vastly successful one following his first-round selection in last June’s NBA Draft, finished with a sparkling 58.9 percent shooting percentage, mostly due to array of dazzling and thunderous dunks. The spindly 6-foot-11 rookie also blocked at least one shot in each of Brooklyn’s last 14 games, falling two shy of P.J. Brown’s all-time franchise rookie record, set in 1993-94 … Prior to Wednesday’s disappointing finale in Beantown, forward Rondae Hollis-Jefferson addressed the team’s improved play during the stretch run. “It’s because we care about each other,” he noted before struggling through a scoreless night against the Celtics. “When you care about one another, the rest is history. We can go out and compete and have fun. Even when it’s a tough loss, it’ll hurt, but we’ll go back to being brothers and start talking about the things we could’ve done differently. For the most part, we care about each other, so that’s why we’re competing the way we are.”