Nets show ‘fight,’ but drop opener
Brooklyn falls in Fernandez's debut in Atlanta
These young, hungry Nets have not yet begun to fight.
Actually, they showed plenty of it in the fourth quarter Wednesday night in Atlanta, but couldn’t pull out a victory in coach Jordi Fernandez’s debut.
Nic Claxton returned from injury and got ejected during a skirmish-filled final period and Cam Thomas scored 20 of his game-high 36 points over the last 12 minutes.
However, none of it resulted in win No. 1 for Fernandez as Brooklyn lost its season opener, 120-116, to the Hawks in front of 17,548 fans at State Farm Arena.
A heated contest that featured a pair of near brawls and 52 personal fouls boiled down to what happened after Claxton was tossed for fouling Dyson Daniels with 8:03 to play and Atlanta leading by five.
Daniels took exception to what was called a flagrant foul following a review, jumping into Claxton’s face behind the basket stanchion.
“That was clearly a foul,” Fernandez said of the incident, which resulted in Claxton logging just 15 minutes off the bench in his first action of the year after he sat out the entire preseason with a hamstring injury.
Claxton, who was inked to a four-year, $97 million contract this past offseason, finished with seven points and six rebounds. He also got some support from his coach when Fernandez was asked if a possible suspension was looming for the 6-foot-11 center.
“You know, we don’t want anybody to see anybody get hurt. I’m pretty sure he didn’t mean to,” Fernandez said.
Cooler heads did eventually prevail, but not for long.
The teams went at it again after Thomas fouled De’Andre Hunter on the way to the basket less than a minute later.
This tete-a-tete called for security guards and coaches holding back players on both benches before the teams got back to playing.
Net killer Trae Young took over thereafter, scoring on a nine-foot floater before Hunter’s 3-pointer stretched the Hawks’ lead to 102-92 with 6:46 remaining.
Thomas made sure Brooklyn wouldn’t go quietly, making a driving layup, a running 25-footer, a short pull-up in the lane, another layup and two free throws to draw the Nets (0-1) within 110-106 with 2:22 left.
The Nets’ leading scorer from a season ago drained another shot from beyond the arc to cut the deficit to two with 3.1 ticks showing on the clock, but Young drained two free throws on the other end to ice it for Atlanta.
“He worked on both sides of the floor and and I really liked that Cam Thomas,” Fernandez said. “We tried to put the ball in his hands, and he had to wrestle with Dyson again.”
Young finished with 30 points and a game-high 12 assists and Onyeka Okongwu added a career-high 28 points off the bench for the Hawks (1-0), who went 33-of-46 at the charity stripe while Brooklyn finished 19-of-25.
Though he didn’t make too much noise about the free-throw disparity in his first game on the bench, Fernandez did compliment his team for its resilience.
“The guys fought. … I loved our physicality,” he gushed. “We’ve been talking about Brooklyn grit, right? You saw it with 32 fouls. The only thing is, we got to be smarter. Our technique has to be better.”
The 41-year-old native of Badalona, Spain also took time to explain his feelings on a night he had been longing for after two successful stints as an NBA assistant in Denver and Sacramento.
“Stepping back, looking at this game: very special, very special for my wife, for my kids, for my parents, for everybody that has been with me during the journey,” he revealed.
“Extremely honored and proud to be where I am.”
Jalen Wilson led Brooklyn reserves with 16 points and starters Cam Johnson and Dennis Schroder added 14 and 13 respectively for the Nets, who got outscored 54-40 in the paint and surrendered 20 points off turnovers.
Young, who torched Brooklyn for 43 and 30 points in their two visits to Atlanta last season, put up 10 in the final seven minutes as the Hawks held off the feisty Nets.
Brooklyn will get another shot at Fernandez’s first win on Friday, when it visits Orlando ahead of Sunday’s home opener at Barclays Center vs. Milwaukee.
Tip-off vs. the Magic is at 7 p.m.
NOTHING BUT NET: Ben Simmons had six points and a team-high eight assists and Dorian Finney-Smith added eight points and eight boards. … Brooklyn did shoot well from 3-point range in Atlanta. Thomas led the way with a 7-for-13 performance from long range as the Nets finished at nearly 40 percent, making 17-of-43 attempts outside the arc. … Ziaire Williams made his Nets debut Wednesday. The 6-foot-9 forward, acquired in the offseason deal that sent Mamadi Diakite to Memphis, finished with nine points on 3-of-6 shooting, including 2-of-3 from 3-point range, in 16 minutes off the bench.
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