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SALT LAKE CITY — The Nets flushed a comeback at the end of regulation with a blown defensive coverage at the end of overtime.
When it was over, Brooklyn suffered a 112-111 loss to Utah before a sellout crowd of 18,175 at the Delta Center on Sunday.
And they don’t want to hear a thing about pingpong balls, or lottery seeding. Not after this one.
“I know this is kind of like a rebuild situation, but we’ve got to go in there like we want to win regardless of what the front office is expecting,” Ben Simmons said.
“No moral victories. I’m pissed off. We should have won but we just gotta keep chopping,” added Nic Claxton. “We’ve been losing a lot, and everybody’s tired of losing. They sat out all their players and we still lost.”
It was Claxton that was right in the middle of the pivotal endgame. He had 14 points and 12 rebounds on a solid night, but — with the Nets up 111-110 with a foul to give, and having discussed it in the timeout with 6.4 seconds left in overtime — failed to impede Isaiah Collier as he drove for an all-too-easy go-ahead layup.
“I should’ve fouled him,” Claxton said. “[Jordi Fernandez] told us in the timeout. So I should have fouled. It’s really that simple. So they would have to either run a different play. So I should have fouled.”
The drive by Collier (23 points, seven assists and seven boards) proved to be the game winner.
Collin Sexton had five of his game-high 23 points in overtime.
The Nets (13-26) have dropped five straight, and eight of nine.
They’ve committed to building through the draft, with four first-round picks in June. And sitting 15th in the draft standings a month ago before trading away Dennis Schroder and Dorian Finney-Smith, they’re now sixth in the lottery odds.
The Nets have moved a half game ahead of seventh-place Portland, whom they visit Tuesday. And they had been 3 ½ games behind the fifth-place Jazz, but shaved that to 2 ½ with Sunday’s loss.
Brooklyn also lost the most recent meeting with the Jazz, on Dec. 21 at Barclays Center. It kicked off a 2-10 stretch and a slide down the Eastern Conference standings but a climb up the lottery ladder.
Lauri Markkanen and Walker Kessler, who’d combined for 40 points and 17 rebounds in Utah’s last game, both sat out against the Nets. It didn’t matter. The Nets were without Cam Thomas, Cam Johnson and D’Angelo Russell as well.
Offense was as hard to come by as would be expected.
On Sunday, they had to rely on recently signed two-way player Tosan Evbuomwan (team-high 22 points) and Ziaire Williams (19 points) to carry the scoring load.
Simmons, in just his second game back, had 14 points, nine assists and six rebounds. He logged 31:38 before surpassing his minutes limit and giving way to Evbuomwan in the extra stanza.
The Nets led 70-67 with four minutes left in the quarter on Tyrese Martin’s dunk. But that’s when they lost control of the game. The Nets conceded a 15-4 run over the next two minutes.
They found themselves down 82-74 with 1:32 left following a dunk by Collier.
Trailing 102–96 with two minutes left after Sexton’s free throws, the Nets closed with six unanswered points to force overtime.
That’s where the Nets lost it. They shot just 3-of-11 and 0-of-3 from deep.
“Both plays on defense and offense, they didn’t work the way we wanted to. So I have to be better with being clear with what we want, the execution. So those two plays on me,” Fernandez said. “Effort, resiliency, finally connecting in that fourth quarter. So happy with that run at the end. We were just not good enough. And that’s what happens in the NBA.”
