Graham's 40 Too Much For Nets To Stay Undefeated Against Hornets
After being up by 20 the Nets fall to the Hornets 113-108 led by Devonte’ Graham’s career-high 40 points at Barclays Center on Wednesday. Brooklyn led for most of this game but the Nets officially blew the lead when Graham hit a three-point jumper with 6:53 remaining in the fourth to go up 93-91.
It was almost midway through the second quarter when the Nets went up 52-32. By the way that’s the first time that the Nets have been up 20 on a team since December 5, 2018 against the Oklahoma City Thunder. However, since they got that 20-point lead tonight the Hornets started to inch away at it and never looked back. By halftime the score was 64-53, Nets.
“I just think we got into a back and forth game. Didn’t put our foot down. All the clichés,” said Head Coach Kenny Atkinson. “Just didn’t have the appropriate consistent play that we needed to have.”
Coach Atkinson also mentioned how he felt as though his guys weren’t in sync tonight, and that definitely showed in a few different areas.
One area is when it came to perimeter defense. Charlottes made 15 of their 35 three point attempts tonight. That’s 42.9% from behind the arc. This season Brooklyn has been averaging holding teams to 36.5% 3FG.
Another area they struggled in is their own perimeter shooting. The Nets shot 26.3% tonight, making only 10 of their 38 attempts. They’re not that great of a three-point shooting team as it is, averaging 34.7 from downtown.
Fortunately for Brooklyn (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it) this was another tale of two halves. In the first half the Nets shot 52.2% from the floor and 40% from the behind the arc. It was the going 33.3% and 17.4% in the second half that messed them up.
Going cold in the second half also allowed Graham the Hornets to erase that 20-point deficit. Graham himself only had 13 of his 40 points in the first half, scoring seven in the first quarter and six in the second. He then scored 13 in the third and 14 in the fourth quarter. His last two three-point daggers in the fourth is what really put Brooklyn away though.
The Nets then tried to respond to this Graham fourth quarter run with a Spencer Dinwiddie three, which showed poor shot selection because the Nets were down 108-106 with 45.8 seconds left on the clock.
Atkinson and some of his players admitted that they wrongly shared the sentiment that this game was supposed to be easy but that came back to bite Brooklyn.
“I think you know if you beat a team twice like we did you think it’s going to be an easy night,” said Jarrett Allen. “But at the end of the day it’s the NBA. Every team comes out to play to win.”
Of course every game is important but losing games like this must hurt a bit more for the Nets when you think about their next two opponents. They face the defending NBA champion Toronto Raptors (16-8) on Saturday and the Philadelphia 76ers (18-7) on Sunday.
