Brooklyn Nets: 5 takeaways from awful loss to Rockets

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4. Small ball fall

Jarrett Allen had a decent night for the Brooklyn Nets, scoring 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting and battling on the boards hard all night, grabbing eight rebounds in 27 minutes.

But as Brooklyn was trying to put together a late push to chip into the Houston Rockets’ lead, coach Kenny Atkinson opted to pull Allen with 4:24 remaining and the Nets trailing by just four.

Rondae Hollis-Jefferson entered the game and that put Jared Dudley in the really, really small-ball 5 spot.

Of course, it was about that time that the Nets began to employ the — as Sarah Kustok dubbed it on YES Network — “Hacapela” strategy, fouling Rockets center Clint Capela away from the ball and sending the career 48 percent foul shooter to the free throw line.

The Nets did it on consecutive possessions, Capela hit three of four at the line as Houston got the lead back to seven points. Eric Gordon’s layup with 1:59 left made it a nine-point game and the Nets never got closer than four again.

It’s worth noting that the Nets were unable to close out defensive stops twice in one trip down the floor because Capela — towering over any Brooklyn player on the floor — kept the ball alive on the offensive glass twice.

Allen was doing a solid job keeping Capela off the offensive window, but when he left the game late, the Nets had no answer for keeping the big Swiss kid off the glass.