Brooklyn Nets: Close Losses Make Nets Season Tougher

As of the NBA All Star break, the Brooklyn Nets have a record of 9-47, the worst mark in the NBA. Making matters worse, over half of Brooklyn’s losses to this point have come by less than 10 points.

The Brooklyn Nets are in the midst of a 14 game losing streak as they come out of the NBA All Star break. Brooklyn, as of the All Star break, has not won a home game in 2017. Certainly, it’s a tough season with a record of 9-47, but, arguably, the way the Nets have been losing makes it even more difficult to handle.

As of this writing, 47 of Brooklyn’s 56 games have ended in losses. And, of those 47 losses, 25 have been by a margin of less than 10 points.

The Nets are a team with a first-year head coach in Kenny Atkinson, and many young players, to go along with veteran center Brook Lopez. A young roster is expected to endure growing pains. But it’s hard not to think that their season could be going quite differently if a majority of those 25 single-digit losses had different outcomes.

Take Brooklyn’s current losing streak, for example. The Nets’ last win was January 20, against the New Orleans Pelicans. Since then, Brooklyn has lost 14 consecutive games. Of those 14 losses, 12 games were lost by single-digit margins. Only San Antonio (26 points) and Minnesota (20 points) have beat Brooklyn by 10 or more points over the course of the losing streak.

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The Nets’ season has consisted of many blown leads and lapses in focus which have set them back. Third quarter collapses were commonplace at one point, and the Nets have also had dry spells in the first and second quarter’s, as well.

Brooklyn relies on Lopez most nights, and a majority of the time, Lopez carries the Nets offensively. Lopez is currently averaging 20.8 points per game, but the Nets cannot afford to have lapses filled with errors and turnovers, as that’s how they fall behind and cannot recover. The Nets simply don’t have enough weapons on offense, especially after trading Bojan Bogdanovic, to stage a comeback each time they fall behind. In fact, their offense has practically disappeared over the course of this losing streak.

The top teams in the NBA are able to come out on top in close games. To this point, the Nets have struggled in that regard. If all of Brooklyn’s single-digit losses went in their favor, the Nets would be sitting at 34-22. Obviously, that’s a stretch. But certainly the Nets’ season would have at least a bit of a different outlook if they were able to close out some of those games.

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Brooklyn is not going to the playoffs this season, and may not be for a few years. But the next step in the process, along with continuing to add young talent, is eventually learning how to win close games. The Nets have a few key pieces in place already, but Brooklyn is certainly in the midst of a youth movement. Along with youth, of course, comes inexperience. But in time, the Nets will ideally learn how to win close games, which could go a long way toward determining their future success.

Brooklyn Nets: Close Losses Make Season Tougher

By Tj Porreca | Feb 24, 2017

As of the NBA All Star break, the Brooklyn Nets have a record of 9-47, the worst mark in the NBA. Making matters worse, over half of Brooklyn’s losses to this point have come by less than 10 points.

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