Nets make brief stop at Barclays

Hope to rebound vs. New Orleans after 1-5 road trip

March 19, 2024 John Torenli, Sports Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle

The Nets look to put their ugly 1-5 road trip behind them whey they host New Orleans in Downtown Brooklyn Tuesday night. AP Photo by Eric Gay

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The Brooklyn Nets hope to leave yet another dismal road trip behind them during their ever-so-brief stopover in Downtown Brooklyn Tuesday night.

Fresh off a 1-5 odyssey that kept them away from Barclays Center for nearly two weeks, the nose-diving Nets will host Zion Williamson and the Southwest Division-leading New Orleans Pelicans on the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush.

Brooklyn (26-42) left our borough following a rousing 112-107 triumph over Philadelphia on March 5, capping a 3-1 homestand that included a pair of wins over visiting Atlanta.

The 10th-place Hawks (30-38) hold the final spot in the Eastern Conference’s play-in tournament, and were only two games ahead of the Nets when Brooklyn’s extended trip began.

Now, the Nets return home four lengths back of Atlanta with 14 regular-season contests remaining, making their bid for a sixth consecutive postseason appearance even more difficult.

Brooklyn suffered another set of back-to-back losses over the weekend, finishing with Sunday night’s 122-115 overtime defeat to San Antonio at Austin’s Moody Center.

The neutral site contest counted as a Nets home game, but Brooklyn squandered a pair of double-digit leads, including one in the fourth quarter, before watching Spurs center Victor Wembanyama take over during the extra session.

The 7-foot-4 rookie had a pair of big buckets and two blocked shots to finish with 33 points, 16 rebounds and a whopping seven swats.

“They made some clutch shots,” Brooklyn interim coach Kevin Ollie said. “They made the right plays when you just kind of (need) to make the right plays. They did an unbelievable job.”

Zion Williamson and the Southwest Division-leading New Orleans Pelicans will be at Barclays Center Tuesday to visit the slumping Nets. AP Photo by Gerald Herbert

The Nets, who are in a stretch of playing 10 of 11 games away from home as March Madness descends on Barclays Center, dropped three straight to close out their trip and have played six sets of back-to-back contests over the past two months, accumulating a 3-9 mark in those games.

“They’re disappointed, but those guys are not making excuses,” Ollie insisted, though his chances of taking the reins on a full-time basis are doubtlessly being affected by his team’s woes.

The Nets are 5-9 since Ollie took the helm, and their chances of pulling out a spot in a potential single-elimination game or two is dwindling.

“No back-to-back and back-to-back, no excuses,” he added. “They are disappointed. They want to win, and they gave it all they had out there.”

Cam Thomas scored 31 points, Dennis Schroder added 19 and Nic Claxton finished with 11 points and 14 rebounds for the Nets, who will embark on a four-game trip right after Tuesday’s game against the Pelicans (41-26).

Mikal Bridges, who has struggled with his shooting consistency throughout the campaign, went a combined 11-for-37 from the floor during the Nets’ three-game losing streak.

He managed 14 points on 5-of-16 shooting against the Spurs after a 1-for-8 showing in Indiana on Saturday.

New Orleans will arrive here having won six of its last seven games, including Saturday’s 126-107 rout of visiting Portland.

CJ McCollum put up 30 points and Williamson added 26 points and 10 boards for the Pelicans, who are vying for home-court advantage in the opening round of the playoffs.

Williamson had a pair of 30-point efforts before his double-double against the Trail Blazers.

“Whatever he decides to do on the floor, when he’s right, he can do it — and rebounding is another component to that,” New Orleans coach Willie Green said of Williamson.

“He’s playing really good basketball right now.”

The Nets are not.

Nor did they play good basketball in their only previous meeting with the Pelicans this season on Jan. 2.

Though Williamson was held to 10 points, McCollum poured in 16 as New Orleans opened with a 9-0 run and never trailed at any point in the game.

Brooklyn shot less than 36 percent from the field and put up a season-low 85 points en route to a 27-point defeat.

Thomas missed all 11 of his shots that night in front of fans that rooted him on during his years at Louisiana State, where he led the Southeastern Conference in scoring.

“It’s a collective thing. His 0-for-11 should go to the team in a sense, where he just had the ball with 3 seconds left (on he shot clock) and had to force up a shot,” Nets forward Cam Johnson said in defense of Thomas.

Day’Ron Sharpe’s solid effort off the bench vs. San Antonio wasn’t enough to help the Nets snap out of their ongoing malaise. AP Photo by Eric Gay

NOTHING BUT NET: Center Day’Ron Sharpe played a solid game off the bench for Brooklyn Sunday vs. San Antonio, amassing 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting with three rebounds, two assists, a steal and a blocked shot in 19 minutes. … After hosting the Pelicans, the Nets will open their four-game trip Thursday in Milwaukee before returning to New York to visit the Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Saturday afternoon. Brooklyn will be in Toronto next Monday and Washington on March 27. The Nets will play six of their final nine regular-season games at Barclays.