ATLANTA – When the Brooklyn Nets sit down on Monday to critique film of Sunday's 99-92 loss to the Atlanta Hawks in their first-round playoff series, there is a serious threat of players kicking themselves.
The Nets know that a great chance to get the jump on this series got away.
Brooklyn had taken an early punch from the team with the best record in the Eastern Conference. But the Nets kept their poise and kept counterpunching.
When Bojan Bogdanovic converted a layup with 8:22 left in the third quarter, the visiting team had sliced a 16-point deficit to 57-54. The Philips Arena felt like the waiting room in a dentist’s office.
The Nets, however, reverted back to making the same mistakes they made in falling behind early and it cost them. But this has the feeling of a series that is far from over.
"I thought we gave ourselves a great chance to win," said Joe Johnson. “Coach told us going into the game the thing that’s killed us against this team is turnovers and it hurt us again tonight. If we take care of the basketball and just stay close and give ourselves a chance down the stretch, we'll be alright.’’
Game 2 is Wednesday night and the Nets have reason to believe they can even up the series before bringing it back to Brooklyn. Game 3 is Saturday (3 p.m.; YES) at Barclays Center. A limited number of tickets are still available.
KEY STRETCH: The Nets had sliced a 16-point deficit to 57-54 and had the crowd in Philips Arena biting their fingernails. But the Hawks answered with a 15-2 run to push the lead back to 72-56. The Nets went 1-for-8 with three turnovers in that stretch.
KEY PLAY: The Nets made one last push at the Hawks and closed to 88-83. Kyle Korver, who can hit from the Georgia-Florida border and gets his shot off quicker than Joey Chestnut can eat a hot dog, buried a 3 from the top of the key, giving Atlanta a 91-83 lead.
NETS GAINS: Despite losing the four regular season games to the Hawks, the Nets believed they could win this series. They have a better understanding of how to make that happen: Get the ball to Brook Lopez. Lopez was at his physical best. He scored 17 points and grabbed 14 rebounds. Lopez only got seven field attempts and six free throws attempts. Those numbers have to increase.
KEY STAT: If Lionel Hollins said once before this series opened that limiting turnovers was crucial, he said it a hundred times. Maybe now the Nets will listen. They committed 17 turnovers, leading to 24 Atlanta points. The Nets forced 14 turnovers, which they converted into 13 points. That’s an 11-point differential in a seven-point loss.
KEY STAT II: Led by Korver, who was 5-for-11 on three-pointers, the Hawks outscored the Nets 30-15 from behind the arc. Atlanta was 10-for-20. The Nets were 5-for-20. That’s a 15-point differential.
TALK: Nets coach Lionel Hollins, whose team was swept in the regular-season by the Hawks, on the benefit of playing the Hawks to the wire: "As I told the team after the game, if you don’t believe you can play in this series, you should believe it now."