Brooklyn Nets HC Jordi Fernández Following Hornets Loss: ‘Hard to Win in the NBA Like This'

The Brooklyn Nets’ losing streak continued, with the team dropping their seventh straight game in a row on Saturday night 105-102 against the Charlotte Hornets. Head coach Jordi Fernández was unhappy about the second chance points the Nets gave up.

“They scored 20 second-chance points in the first half and 14 in the second half. and when you lose by one possession, this is unacceptable,” he said.

Fernández pointed to the Hornets’ rebounding as a key factor in his team’s loss. Moussa Diabaté, in particular, hurt the Nets with 15 total rebounds and 10 on the offensive glass. Miles Bridges also pitched in with double figures on the boards at 12. No Brooklyn player collected more than six rebounds (Nic Claxton and D’Angelo Russell).

“When that happens, usually the basketball gods help you, and that's what happened tonight,” Fernández said. “I thought that it was a disengagement, and then if you don't rebound, you don't run.”

The Brooklyn bench boss also wasn’t pleased with his team’s spacing. He said that the Nets were “lazy,” making it too easy for the Hornets to switch on defense and not touching the paint enough times. Fernández wants his team’s habits to change in the long-term.

“It’s hard to win in the NBA like this,” he said. “Gotta play faster, gotta defend, gotta rebound. This is not who we've been or we wanna be.”

Russell led the Nets in scoring with 28 points in 29 minutes. That included a scorching run in the fourth quarter with 15 points on three made threes. This was only the 29-year-old’s third game since returning from a short injury layoff on March 4.

Fernández said: “He's a really good ballhandler. he can play pick and roll, he can score, shoot the three, so I thought he did a great job. He was carrying us, keeping the lead, but I thought everybody just relaxed and thought that this was over. That's how you learn. That's how you take steps towards being a winning team, and obviously this is not what we wanna do.”

Noah Clowney also came back from injury against Charlotte. The Nets forward had not played since Jan. 27 due to his ankle. He had an assist and a steal in 5:41 minutes.

“It's good to see him on the court,” Fernández said. “He's gotta keep shooting. Shots are gonna go in because that's what he is. He's a great shooter who plays extremely hard and we want him to keep finding the rhythm.”

Next, the Nets host the Los Angeles Lakers at Barclays Center on Monday night. The Lakers are coming off a 101-111 loss to the Boston Celtics on Saturday, in which LeBron James suffered a groin strain.

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