The Brooklyn Nets went from a high to a low in quick fashion. Coming off an electric win in Boston on Tuesday night, with Caris LeVert’s 51-point explosion keying a 51-point fourth quarter, a comeback from 21-points down and an overtime win, the Nets had their lowest-scoring game of the season in a 118-79 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies back home in Brooklyn on the second half of a road/home back-to-back.
“We came off of a really good win last night,” said Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson after the game. “We didn’t build on that. I didn’t feel that we had our, I keep saying the word, but our spirit in the right place and that’s disappointing. The crowd let us know about it and I think they are 100 percent right. I think that you feel it when it’s not there. So we have a great group of guys, I think fatigue plays something in a back-to-back. Guys were a little frustrated we got down, we were missing shots, but we didn’t have that fighting spirit that we normally do.”
After Brooklyn lost for the sixth time in eight games since the All-Star break to fall to 27-34, there was a lengthy postgame locker room conversation.
“Kenny (Atkinson) just talked to us for a little while as a team, spoke up, talked sort of about how our performance tonight kind of boiled down to simply not having the compete level, high spirit level, and I think at the end of the day, we’re not necessarily focused on the things that are out of our control,” said Harris. “You can always control your demeanor, your attitude, those sort of things, and then how hard you play. And that’s probably the lowest we’ve had for each one of those intangibles this season.”
After wrapping up a three-game home stand with the San Antonio Spurs on Friday and the Chicago Bulls on Sunday before going right back on the road for another four-game trip, this time out to California.
“This is what we signed up for,” said Atkinson. “I keep saying this, I think you build through struggles like this and games like this and stretches like this. But I’ll tell you think we’ve definitely got to start playing better. We’ve got to start playing better if we’re gonna stay in the playoff hunt. The schedule’s too hard to think this thing is done. It’s gonna be a fight to the end to make this happen.”
WELCOME BACK DOCTOR
The Nets will welcome the legendary Julius Erving to Friday night’s game against San Antonio, the first game he has attended since the franchise’s move to Brooklyn. The first 10,000 fans will receive a Black Panther inspired Dr. J. bobblehead, created in collaboration with Marvel.
“Dr. J is the most iconic basketball great of our time,” said Joe Tsai, Governor of the Brooklyn Nets. “As a high school student in New Jersey, I marveled at The Doctor operate under grace. He turned flair into elegance and revolutionized the game. I am thrilled that we are bringing Dr. J home to attend his first Brooklyn Nets game at Barclays Center.”
In three seasons with the Nets, Erving averaged 28.2 points, 10.9 rebounds and 5.2 assists, winning three consecutive ABA MVP awards and leading the Nets to ABA championships in 1974 and 1976.
MORE FROM CHIOZZA
Two-way guard Chris Chiozza made a big impression with his fourth-quarter play in Brooklyn’s comeback win in Boston on Tuesday night, finishing with eight points and four assists in 22 minutes, his most significant game action since joining the Nets shortly after New Year’s. Chiozza also hit two essential jumpers in the final minutes of a game that went right down to Caris LeVert making three free throws with 0.2 seconds remaining to force overtime.
With Garrett Temple out of Wednesday’s game due to a left ankle sprain, Chiozza got an even earlier opportunity against Memphis as part of the regular guard rotation. He finished up with 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting. In the last two games, Chiozza is 8-of-13 overall and 4-of-7 from 3-point range.
“I think it changed the complexion of the game how he controlled the tempo,” said Atkinson before Wednesday’s game of Chiozza’s performance in Boston the night before. “Obviously I haven’t seen a ton of him. We see him on 3-on-3, we see him in his individual work. We haven’t seen a big sample size of him playing in scrimmages because a lot of times he’s out of the scrimmages because we’ve got our 10 main guys in there. But I will say this, the passing was, what’s the word I’m looking for, pinpoint like you said. But there was risk involved in some of those passes. He threw one with the left hand to the right corner. Me and (radio broadcaster Tim Capstraw) were joking after the game about it. It was just a dart. I didn’t see it coming. It was really an incredible pass.
“There was no fear in him either. He was fearless. So they were taking away Caris one time, and normally guy’s taken away, they keep feeding Caris, but he just took off and kind of made a play. You say, well that’s what he should do, but young guys sometimes they just defer to the guy that’s got it going. I like his demeanor. It’s just a steadiness and coolness to him. Not fazed by the moment at all. Like I said, I was impressed how he controlled the rhythm of the game. Changed the complexion of the game. Caris was great. But I do think Chris changed the complexion of the game.”
ABOUT THE SPURS
This is the second and final meeting of the season between the Nets and Spurs. San Antonio won 118-105 at home on Dec. 19. The Spurs are 26-34 and in 11th place in the Western Conference.
San Antonio is eighth in the NBA in field goal percentage (47.0) and sixth in 3-point percentage (37.0) but just 29th in 3-point attempts (28.6). They don’t hit the offensive boards much, ranking 26th with 9.0 per game, but they do take care of the ball; they’re first in turnovers with just 12.4 per game.
DeMar DeRozan leads the Spurs with 22.2 points and 5.4 assists per game, plus 5.6 rebounds. LaMarcus Aldridge is next with 18.8 points and a team-high 7.5 rebounds. The 6-foot-11 Aldridge is attempting a career-high 2.9 3-pointers per game and shooting 39.2 percent in his 14th NBA season. He missed San Antonio’s last four games with a shoulder injury.