Brooklyn Nets lose third straight to Spurs at home, 100-95
By Omri Benami
The Brooklyn Nets played a close game tonight against the San Antonio Spurs at home. In the end, San Antonio prevailed by a score of 100-95. The Nets have lost three straight games.
The Spurs were missing many key players in this game: Kawhi Leonard, Manu Ginobli, and Rudy Gay. Leonard, as announced earlier, is out indefinitely with a quad injury. The Brooklyn Nets looked to take advantage.
Both teams played well offensively in the first half. Brooklyn shot over 46 percent from the field, while San Antonio converted half of its three point attempts. The main difference was in the turnovers, where the Nets had 11 to the Spurs’ two.
The teams were separated by five points at half time, 51-46. Similar to the game against the Knicks on Monday, however, the Nets came out flat in the third. The Spurs led by 17 at one point, yet Brooklyn was able to fight back. Brooklyn played well in the fourth quarter, but ultimately fell just short.
LaMarcus Aldridge led all scorers, while dominating down low for the Spurs tonight. He finished with 34 points and eight rebounds. Patty Mills added 25, including an unbelievable seven-of-eight from the perimeter. Mills hadn’t hit seven three pointers in his previous six games combined.
The Nets had two players who looked very good tonight. Joe Harris had 18 points, and Allen Crabbe dropped 20 and eight rebounds on an efficient four-of-six from long range. We wrote earlier that Harris could become a trade chip, and he certainly didn’t hurt his stock tonight.
Spencer Dinwiddie had 13 assists tonight, but really struggled with his shooting. He was three-of-13 from the field, and failed to hit a single three pointer. He also missed two important free throws in crunch time. Nevertheless, his 13 assists against zero turnovers was impressive. But D’Angelo Russell’s return can’t come soon enough from a scoring standpoint.
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At one point the Brooklyn Nets were able to cut this game down to just three points with a few minutes remaining. The issue as it has been often this season, was that no one was able to hit the big shot.
This type of play allows coach Kenny Atkinson to defend his small ball lineups. But one has to wonder what the team would look like in stretches with big likes Jahlil Okafor, who played well tonight in limited minutes, and Jarrett Allen, playing alongside each other.
Perhaps when Russell returns and the guard lineup becomes more set in stone, this can be a wrinkle the Nets roll out against teams.
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The Nets will look to bounce back on Friday, as they host Hassan Whiteside and the Miami Heat.