Although playing without the solid work of point guard Jarrett Jack, who is lost for the season, and giving up 37 first quarter points, the Brooklyn Nets fought back last night at the Barclays Center before ultimately losing to the Boston Celtics, 103-94.
The loss came on Thaddeus Young bobblehead night and the physical forward gave a gutsy performance despite being on the losing end. Young had 23 points and 15 rebounds. Joe Johnson also had 21 points and Brook Lopez, who was just name Eastern Conference player of the week, chipped in 19.
The Nets actually outscored Boston the last three quarters of the game, but once again the poor first quarter was what did the borough’s basketball pride in.
“The first quarter, we had so many turnovers you can’t even explain how it happened,” Nets Coach Lionel Hollins said. “It wasn’t just defense. It was poor decisions.”
In fact, poor performance in the first quarter has been a negative staple of this Net season and it has become indicative of the bigger picture. In other words, many of the Nets losses, like last night, have become symbolic for this 2015-2016 Nets season. Remember, the squad got off to a rough start this season but they have actually managed to become competitive after their rocky beginning.
Now with Jack out for the season, it is clear that Johnson will continue to shoulder a heavier workload the rest of the way. By supplying some much needed offense in the loss on Monday, hopefully Johnson will continue to step up for this team.
In the meantime, there are all kinds of rumors flying around about available point guards and that Nets Owner Mikhail Prokhorov is looking to replace general manager Billy King with Andrey Vatutin, who served as CEO and vice president (and later president) of Prokhorov’s former Russian team, CSKA Moscow, which won several EuroLeague Championships.
In the meantime, the playoff contending Toronto Raptors are coming to the Barclays Center tomorrow night. With five of their next six games at the Barclays Center, the Nets know that if they want to get back into that playoff mix then the time is now.
