The Brooklyn Nets are finally done with their five-game west coast road trip, but finish the trip at just 1-4 after Monday’s 125-108 loss to the Utah Jazz. One of the themes that came up in the loss to the Jazz was how many times Utah was able to get a second look at the basket.
Thanks to a Jazz playing two bigs most of the time, depending on how you look at Utah forward Lauri Markkanen, they had a consistent size advantage over the Nets and that was evident on the glass. The Jazz won the rebounding battle 51-36 and that includes Utah snatching 12 offensive rebounds, led by center Walker Kessler’s three.
Those 12 offensive rebounds led to 16 second-chance points that seemed to be more impactful each time that the Jazz were able to score after missing their first shot. Brooklyn has been one of the worst teams in the league in terms of allowing second-chance points despite being one of the best rebounding teams in the NBA. Monday was the worst of both worlds.
Third-year guard Cam Thomas, who led the Nets in scoring with 32 points, was part of a Brooklyn unit that struggled to keep the Jazz off the glass all game long. He spoke on how important it is for the Nets to finish their good defensive possessions with strong rebounds to prevent letting opposing teams feast on second-chance points:
“It’s tough. It’s hard on anybody. We play defense great for a full 20, 24 seconds, wherever they shoot at, then, when they get the offensive rebound, it’s kind of deflating. So, we just got to lock in and finish our possessions. Finish our good defensive possessions.”
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