Slumping Nets march into New Orleans

Brooklyn looks to start New Year on high note vs. Pelicans

January 2, 2024 John Torenli, Sports Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Nic Claxton and the Nets hope to break out of their end of the year malaise when they open their 2024 slate in New Orleans Tuesday night. AP Photo by Kyle Phillips

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The Brooklyn Nets hope to leave a dismal finish to 2023 behind them Tuesday night when they visit the Southwest Division-leading New Orleans Pelicans at the Smoothie King Center.

The Nets (15-18) completed last year’s portion of the schedule with a 124-108 defeat in Oklahoma City on Sunday night.

The loss was Brooklyn’s third in a row, eighth in 10 contests and dropped it to 0-2 on its ongoing four-game road trip, which will conclude Wednesday night in Houston.

Mikal Bridges scored 15 of his 22 points in the first quarter on New Year’s Eve against the Thunder, handed out seven assists and grabbed seven rebounds.

But the Nets misfired on 34 of their 46 attempts from 3-point range, with Bridges clanging all but three of his 10 shots from beyond the arc.

“You look at the stat sheet and we did some really good things tonight,” Brooklyn coach Jacque Vaughn said after his struggling unit turned the ball over just six times while forcing Oklahoma City (22-9) into 13 giveaways.

“A lot of our shots were open tonight,” Vaughn added. “We sprayed that thing around and we were really unselfish and getting each other good shots tonight. … It was just one of those nights the ball didn’t go in for you.”

Cam Thomas scored 20 points off the bench in his new role as a reserve, going 7-of-18 from the floor.

Brooklyn allowed the Thunder to bury 54 percent of their shots, including an eye-popping 18-of-33 (54.5 percent) from long range.

“Probably the only thing we kind of fought each other all night was the transition and knowing, coming into this game that they’re elite at getting downhill and getting transition,” Vaughn noted.

“So a couple of those timeouts I had to burn was to address that.”

Nets coach Jacque Vaughn looks to point his team back into the win column when they continue their four-game trip in the Big Easy Tuesday. AP Photo by Alex Brandon

The Pelicans (19-14) have won two straight, including Sunday’s 129-109 rout of LeBron James and the visiting Los Angeles Lakers.

Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram poured in 26 points apiece for New Orleans, which improved to 2-2 on its five-game homestand.

“Not only are they scoring, but they’re sharing the ball with each other and their teammates,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said. “That’s the trust factor we have to have.”

So must the Nets, who have dropped a season-worst three games below .500 entering 2024 and have yielded 122.1 points over their last 10 contests.

Brooklyn has won just once in 17 contests when yielding at least 120 points, a trend that has haunted our borough’s NBA franchise since a disastrous 1-4 West Coast swing last month.

The Nets are hoping to begin turning things around in the Big Easy.

“We’re definitely frustrated. Nobody wants to lose. I hate losing, everybody hates losing,” Nic Claxton told the New York Post after amassing 15 points and 16 boards in Oklahoma City.

“We just got to figure it out. We just can’t get used to losing. Need to figure out solutions and figure out ways to fix it.”

Brooklyn forward Mikal Bridges shot a season-worst 43.8 percent from the field in December, a trend he hopes to reverse in 2024. AP Photo by Kyle Phillips

NOTHING BUT NET: Brooklyn has won its last four visits to New Orleans. The Nets will host the Pelicans at Downtown’s Barclays Center on March 19 to wrap up the two-game regular season series between the teams. … After visiting Houston on Wednesday, the Nets will fly home to Brooklyn to host the Thunder on Friday night. … The Nets haven’t slipped four games below .500 since they were 2-6 following a 108-99 loss to Chicago at Barclays on Nov. 1, 2022. That was Vaughn’s first game as head coach for Brooklyn after Steve Nash and the team agreed to part ways.