Brooklyn Nets: Player grades from 118-91 debacle in Montreal
By Phil Watson
The Brooklyn Nets collapsed under the weight of 22 turnovers in just the 2nd half Wednesday night as they were blown out by the Toronto Raptors in Montreal.
Even by preseason standards, the performance by the Brooklyn Nets in the second half of their 118-91 loss to the Toronto Raptors at Bell Centre in Montreal was abjectly awful.
In the final 24 minutes, as the Nets were being outscored 62-32, Brooklyn committed twice as many turnovers (22) as they had made field goals (11).
For the game, the Nets had 34 turnovers and made 33 shots. Not ideal.
In regular-season play, the Nets have exceeded that turnover count just twice since 1983-84, per Basketball-Reference.com.
The New Jersey Nets committed 36 turnovers in a 123-105 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Jan. 14, 1986, and had 35 turnovers in a 125-104 loss at Portland on Nov. 29, 1987.
Brooklyn committed 15 of those turnovers in the third period alone, when they had more miscues (15) than points scored (11). That is a surefire recipe to turn a three-point halftime lead into a nearly insurmountable deficit (91-70) in just 12 minutes.
When it started to go bad for the Nets, it snowballed quickly. In the third period, Jarrett Allen committed all three of his turnovers, Rodions Kurucs had three as well and the floor leader, D’Angelo Russell, also coughed it up three times.
Toronto scored 20 points off turnovers in that quarter alone and had a whopping 47 points off turnovers in the game.
It was … not pretty to watch. Certainly not for a second time.
The Nets shot 40.2 percent (33-for-82) overall and struggled again from 3-point range, making 6-of-26 (23.1 percent).
By contrast, Toronto hit 45.5 percent overall (40-for-88) and was 16-for-36 from the great beyond (44.4 percent).
The Nets won the rebounding battle 56-50, but were outscored on second-chance points 14-12 despite a 10-8 edge on the offensive glass.
The Raptors led in points in the paint, 46-42, and outscored the Nets on the fast break, 15-8.
The Nets used a different starting unit than they had in the first two preseason games, with DeMarre Carroll resting on Wednesday. Joe Harris and Jared Dudley made their first starts of the preseason along with Allen, Russell and Caris LeVert.
Ed Davis was also rested, while Allen Crabbe (sprained left ankle), Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (strained left adductor) and Shabazz Napier (strained right hamstring) were inactive.
Rookies Jordan McLaughlin, Nuni Omot and Theo Pinson were all DNP-CDs for the second straight game.
And with that here are the player grades from a bad night in Montreal.