The Brooklyn Nets have been one of the best offenses in the NBA as they have embraced being a high-volume three-point shooting team. However, it appears that style of play got away from them in their first of five road games on the west coast.
In Monday’s 131-118 loss to the Sacramento Kings, the Nets shot 14-of-29 (48.3%) from three-point land and while they shot a great percentage from that distance as a team, volume was the issue when you’re trying to outscore the Kings. The 29 three-point attempts was the fourth-lowest mark for Brooklyn in a game this season and the only time the Nets won shooting less than 29 threes was in their thrilling 114-113 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Dec. 6.
More to the point, Sacramento shot 25-of-45 (55.6%) from deep, breaking their franchise record for three-pointers made in a game and they took 16 more threes than the Nets did. At the blistering pace that the Kings play at with players like point guard De’Aaron Fox and center Domantas Sabonis being able to lead the fastbreak, Sacramento was getting points in bunches in part because of how many open threes they were getting in transition.
Aside from the huge disparity in three-point shooting between both teams, it was also apparent that the Nets were not converting good looks to make the Kings pay for being over-aggressive on defense. According to NBA.com, Brooklyn shot just 7-of-25 (28%) in the paint (outside of the restricted area) when they normally shoot 40.5% from that area.
Nets forward Cam Johnson, who put up 15 points and four rebounds in the contest, had his own struggles from inside three-point range along with the rest of the team. He addressed the team’s shot selection against the Kings and how important it was in the loss:
“In a sense. They were kind of sealing out, not over rotating at times and kind of just leaving that shot (mid-range/in the paint) open. The analytics are one thing, but we did get a lot of looks that guys can make from the mid-range. So, a combination (of Sacramento’s defense and Brooklyn missing).”
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