After losing 125-108 to the Utah Jazz on Monday, the Brooklyn Nets have finished their five-game west coast road trip at just 1-4 despite having two winnable games along the way. The Nets did suffer crushing losses to the Sacramento Kings, Denver Nuggets, and the Jazz, but they were also a couple of plays away from beating the Golden State Warriors and returning to Brooklyn with a 2-3 record.
Monday’s loss to the Jazz seemed similar to losses to the Kings and the Warriors in that Brooklyn was competitive for about a half or so and then, there was a run that blew the game open. Against Utah, it was a 15-4 run in the final 4:29 of the third quarter that allowed the Jazz to go from being down 78-73 to heading into the fourth quarter leading 88-82.
While there were plenty of issues with Monday’s loss, the two main factors that stood out was Brooklyn’s inability to compete with Utah on the glass and in transition. For the game, the Jazz out-rebounded the Nets 51-36 and out-scored Brooklyn in fastbreak points 30-10. Utah was able to turn 12 offensive rebounds into 16 second-chance points and that seemed to prevent the Nets from making any substantial runs in the first half.
Rebounding has generally not been an issue for Brooklyn this season as they are one of the best rebounding teams in the league, even after Monday’s poor performance. Here’s what Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn had to say about what Brooklyn did not do well in Monday’s loss to the Jazz:
“I don’t think we played well the entire game really. Even though we were up five at half, the rebounding piece again staring us in the face, them (the Jazz) getting out in transition. again staring us in the face. So, those two things, they add up for a bad recipe because (of) those paint points and those extra opportunities for them. Our guys were giving what they had. It’s been a tough road trip for us.”
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