Nets fall to 1-3 this season after 144-139 overtime loss to Nuggets

If you had the Nets knocking disconnected the Denver Nuggets connected your nightly bingo card, past you were not excessively acold off. However, Brooklyn came up conscionable abbreviated connected Tuesday astatine Barclays Center, losing 144-139 and falling to 1-3 successful its archetypal 4 games nether first-year caput manager Jordi Fernandez.

While defence has been a salient portion of the Nets’ individuality aboriginal this season, discourtesy is what carried them successful their triumph implicit Denver. It each started with an explosive opening 4th led by Dennis Schröder, who picked up close wherever helium near disconnected successful Sunday’s decision of the Milwaukee Bucks.

The seasoned defender had already poured successful 13 points connected 5-of-6 shooting (3-of-4 from deep) successful his archetypal 7 minutes connected the court. The Nuggets had nary reply for the German disconnected the dribble, and his aboriginal violative occurrence proved to beryllium contagious. The Nets went 16-of-23 from the tract successful a 40-point archetypal quarter. That equates to 69.6%. They made 7 3-pointers arsenic a team, committed zero turnovers, and recovered themselves up by 13 points aft the archetypal 12 minutes of enactment and led Fernandez’s aged squad 72-63 astatine halftime.

The Nuggets were playing successful the 2nd crippled of a back-to-back set, and aboriginal connected their legs looked bushed and heavy. Brooklyn whitethorn beryllium susceptible to the aforesaid contented successful Wednesday’s roadworthy crippled against the Memphis Grizzlies.

The astir awesome facet of the Nets’ first-half success? They did connected an disconnected nighttime for Cam Thomas. Schröder, who whitethorn beryllium playing the champion hoops of his vocation depending connected who you ask, contributed 17 points and 7 assists successful the archetypal half, marking the archetypal clip helium has deed those constituent and assistance totals successful a azygous fractional successful his career. He finished the nighttime with a team-high 28 points and has present scored astatine slightest 20 points and dished retired astatine slightest 5 assists successful each of his past 3 appearances, his longest streak successful that respect since his days with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Ziaire Williams, continuing to showcase his monolithic improvements arsenic an extracurricular shooter, went 3-of-4 from 3-point scope successful the archetypal half, and Cam Johnson, the Nets’ designated sniper, went 5-of-5 from down the arc. It was conscionable the 11th clip successful squad past that a subordinate made 5 oregon much treys without a miss.

Brooklyn had 20 assists to conscionable 1 turnover successful the archetypal half, its champion assist-to-turnover ratio successful immoderate fractional since 2021. The Nuggets matched that effort. It was a cleanable opening fractional for some teams and turnovers remained debased throughout.

However, the Nets cooled disconnected a spot to commencement the 2nd fractional and Denver took advantage. After trailing by arsenic galore arsenic 17 points successful the archetypal half, the Nuggets scored the archetypal 5 points of the 3rd 4th to chopped their shortage to four, and conscionable similar that, the crippled was nary longer a one-sided affair. Michael Malone’s squad captured their archetypal pb since the game’s opening minutes, 101-99, with 11:14 near successful the 4th quarter.

However, Thomas, who finished with 26 points, shook disconnected a mediocre violative commencement and came live erstwhile it mattered most. He scored 2 consecutive buckets successful clutch clip to springiness the Nets a 124-121 pb with 33.8 seconds left. Brooklyn got a large halt connected Denver’s adjacent possession, but seasoned Dorian Finney-Smith divided a brace of escaped throws erstwhile Brooklyn got the shot back. Nikola Jokić sunk a five-foot hook changeable to necktie the crippled astatine 125 moments later. Finney-Smith past missed a go-ahead 3-pointer arsenic regularisation expired, sending the crippled to overtime.

Ten of Thomas’ points came successful the last frame, but overtime was a antithetic communicative for the young scoring guard. He went 1-of-5 from the tract successful the other play and the Nets changeable 5-of-12 arsenic a team. The Nuggets outscored them 19-14 implicit the last 5 minutes to bargain their 2nd roadworthy triumph of the season.

The Nets did a large occupation limiting Jokić early, but the reigning MVP would not beryllium denied successful the end, finishing with 29 points, 18 rebounds and 16 assists. His longtime moving mates, Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon, some scored 24 points. Johnson knocked down six of Brooklyn’s 20 3-pointers successful the loss.

After Wednesday’s matchup successful Memphis, the Nets volition look the Chicago Bulls connected Friday and the Detroit Pistons connected Sunday. Both games volition beryllium played astatine home.