LOS ANGELES — The Brooklyn Nets' current road trip is lengthy, but began leisurely. They departed on Tuesday and over their first four nights away from home played a single game. But Saturday night's game in Utah was the first of three in four days, and it's followed up by part two of a back-to-back Sunday night in Los Angeles against the Clippers.
The Nets (36-35) will face the Clippers (40-30) coming off a second straight loss, 114-98 to the Jazz on Saturday night. The seven-game road trip began with a 108-96 loss to Oklahoma City on Wednesday.
"Let's not overreact to this," said Nets coach Kenny Atkinson after Saturday night's loss. "We had I thought an admirable performance in Oklahoma City, didn't come with the win, here they took it to us pretty good and we've just got to bounce back. Luckily have another one tomorrow night against a similar, veteran-type team. These type teams give us trouble. They screen hard, they hold, they grab, they're physical, and somehow we've got to be a little more resilient in terms of fighting through that physicality."
TOUGH SHOOTING NIGHT VS. JAZZ
Brooklyn's 34.7 percent shooting performance against Utah on Saturday night was its second-lowest of the season. The third lowest also came against the Jazz, an almost identical 34.9 back in Brooklyn on Nov. 28. For a team that prioritizes drives and scoring at the rim, Utah's interior duo of Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors presents a problem they have not solved. Each had three blocks against the Nets on Saturday.
"I think we had a difficult time just finishing when we were in the paint and then when we did get in the paint, we were a little -- not hesitant -- but we just didn't make the right reads a lot of times, whether it was making the extra pass, giving up good shots for great shots, but it's a credit to their defense too," said Joe Harris. "Their length and activity made it difficult for us all night."
Overall though, Kenny Atkinson has noted offensive slippage. Brooklyn has an offensive rating of 108.6 for the season, but 101.7 over the last five games. Effective field goal percentage for the season is 52.0. Over the last five, 49.3.
The Nets did win the first three of those last five games, and the losses in the last two came against the two teams tied for third in the league in defensive rating — Oklahoma City and Utah.
"I think collectively we're just not playing well right now offensively," said Atkinson. "I think it's a period we've got to get through. It happens. Conversely, we've been really good defensively, and we've gone through both stretches. So I'm not going to overreact to it. We'll work on it. And we're not shooting the ball well either. That's an issue. We've got to turn it around here soon against these good teams we're coming up against."
ABOUT THE CLIPPERS
The Clippers (40-30) have been coming on strong as they battle the Jazz and Spurs for playoff position in the Western Conference. They're a half-game back of Utah (40-29) and a game behind sixth-place San Antonio (41-29). Winners of six of their last seven, they're six games up on ninth-place Sacramento. The Clippers are sixth in the league in points per game. They're second in 3-point shooting percentage (38.7) but just 29th in 3-point attempts (25.2), and third in 2-point attempts (62.3) but just 26th in 2-point percentage (50.2). The Clippers also get to the line, where they're first in free throw attempts (28.8) and eighth in percentage (79.2). Sixth man Lou Williams leads the Clippers with 20.4 points and 5.3 assists per game. Danilo Gallinari averages 19.4 points and 6.0 rebounds and shoots 44.2 percent from 3-point range.