Dinwiddie's 41 Not Enough For Nets To Get First Win in San Antonio Since 2003

Brooklyn hurt themselves with their lack of efficiency against the Spurs

Despite a strong first half by the Nets, they fall short to the Spurs 118-105 in San Antonio on Thursday night. Brooklyn came into this matchup only having won twice against the Spurs in the last six seasons, and 0-17 in the last 17 matchups in San Antonio specifically.

Spencer Dinwiddie, who’s been on a tear since Kyrie Irving has been out with a shoulder impingement, even scored a career-high 41 points last night, but it wasn’t enough to top the strong second half comeback by the Spurs who were down six at halftime.

Speaking of injuries, the Nets suffered a blow tonight by losing David Nwaba to a torn Achilles in the 4 quarter. Nwaba went undrafted but has been in the NBA since 2016. He’s played for the Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers and he’s also spent some time in the G League. However this season he’s been making the most of his minutes, especially this month. Nwaba is averaging 13.3 MPG this season, and this month has averaged 16 MPG, while the Nets have went 5-3 in the month of December.

On the play Nwaba got injured it was obvious that it was a serious injury, since there was no one around him and he was grabbing at his heel, which was in pain.

“You never want to see that [with] one of your brothers. He’s a part of the Nets family,” said Joe Harris. “You think about all the time that you’ve put in together. How hard he’s worked. You never want to see that happen. Even the guys on the Spurs, you never want to see injuries like that happen with something significant like that. [It] makes guys emotional. It’s tough on everybody.”

As far as the rest of the on court play, that wasn’t looking good for the Nets either. Brooklyn hurt themselves in three different ways: three-point shooting, selfishness and turnovers.

The Nets only made seven of the 36 three-point shots that they attempted last night. They average 37 attempts per game, but were already five of their 20 attempts at halftime. Perhaps they should have elected to a different game plan.

Brooklyn also averages 24 APG, but only had 16 assists last night. Not to mention only three players scored in double digits, one being Garrett Temple who scored 10 and it took him three quarters to do so.

Lastly, it is the season of giving but the Nets just flat out didn’t take care of the ball last night. They had 18 turnovers. They already average 15 per game, ranking 21st in the league, which isn’t too hot to begin with.

“They turned some bad shots on our end, some careless turnovers on our end into easy baskets,” said Joe Harris. “Once a good team like that once they establish a rhythm offensively they start flying off of screens, knocking down shots. Guys start getting in more of a rhythm. That’s sort of what happened in the second half. The momentum definitely shifted.”

The Spurs on the other hand moved the ball well, totaling 26 assists and had six players score in double figures, with LaMarcus Aldridge leading the way with 20 points and 10 rebounds.