ATLANTA — In the biggest game of the Nets season, Kevin Durant gave them a career-high scoring night. And it still wasn’t enough.
The Nets’ 122-115 loss to Atlanta — falling behind and squandering a career-high 55 points from Durant — dropped them to 10th in the East.
“We didn’t play a good ball game. I can’t really sugarcoat it,” said the always upbeat Steve Nash, who could normally sugarcoat a lump of coal at Christmas.
But not falling from eighth to tenth with the loss and going from a double-elimination situation that only needed a single win to win the playoffs, now into a disheartening single-elimination nightmare where you can’t win just once , but has to win twice.
Or his Nets coughing up a 14-0 run and never leading again. Or flushing Durant’s career night by undisciplinedly reaching in after reaching in to give up a 49-19 advantage on executed free throws. It’s hard to spin anything positive into it.
“It’s just bad basketball. To give them points like that after playing a good defense, and then Boom, Reach. We just have to get better in that area,” Durant said, specifying that it was the nets, not the umpires.
Kevin Durant, who scored 55 points, makes a move on Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot during the Nets’ 122-115 loss to the Hawks.USA TODAY Sports
“It’s just execution. When you’ve got someone bottled up and they go up to shoot and at the last second you [reach], it’s just undisciplined. And we do that very often. We have boys bottled up, great defense and we end up in a foul. If we want to grow and be a better team, this cannot happen.”
The Nets have shown that they still have a lot to improve and don’t have much time for that.
Durant shot 19 of 28 and hit a career-high 8-of-10 from deep, though the Hawks sold out and constantly blitzed him. And the nets wasted it.
Kyrie Irving had 31 points and six assists but only shot 12 of 32. No other net cracked double digits, and they struggled to hold their own at the other end when their move didn’t match them in suit at Bigs either.
Kyrie Irving, who scored 31 points, drives on Kevin Huerter during the Nets loss. USA TODAY Sports
“I just have to do a better job down there. And what a time to go to a shooting pool too. I just want to get out of there so that we don’t put so much pressure on [Durant] and it’s just better for our offense,” Irving said.
“I take full responsibility for just standing my ground in this post and better sending my man to help or play without fouling. [With a 49-19 edge in free throws]those possessions are important.”
This result counts. And there’s likely more to come in the postseason.
Brooklyn fell from eighth to tenth with just four games left. They’re one game behind Atlanta and behind the Hornets in the tiebreak. If the play-in started now, they would be headed to ninth-placed Charlotte and need to win and then defeat the loser of the 7-8 tilt (say, Cleveland or Atlanta).
Knowing how crucial Saturday was, the Nets picked up nine quick Durant points to take an 11-2 lead.
The Nets led 34-29 after a steal and dunk from Andre Drummond, but they coughed up a 14-0 run – much of the run with Durant off the floor – and fell back by nine.
Trailing 57-50 and 1:26 at halftime, they gave up the last eight points to go into the dressing room with 15 points.
Durant poured 19 in the third to put them in play and Irving’s bankshot took it to 107-106 with 2:32 to play, but Bogdan Bogdanovic made it three and Trae Young (36 points) hit a floater that put it in the essentially ended .
Next up on Tuesday, they’re hosting Houston, a game they can’t screw up.
“Go home, and — that’s just a metaphor — you go home, you get your bulletproof vest, you get your pistol, you get your rocket launcher, you get your AK, you get everything,” Irving said. “You load up all the ammo – it’s just a metaphor, folks – and get ready for war. And you don’t just live with the results, you go to work with a mental focus and a fear-free attitude.”