If the Nets listened to their head coach Sunday night and took a collective look in the mirror, the reflection might have shown a pile of bricks.
Cam Johnson’s hot hand, a nine-point third-quarter lead and the opportunity for a surprise early-season three-game winning streak went up in smoke during the second half of a 106-92 matinee loss to the lowly Pistons at Barclays Center.
“Offensively,” first-year head coach Jordi Fernandez said, “it was the worst I’ve seen us play.”
It didn’t help that Cam Thomas — who came in as the No. 9 scorer in the NBA, averaging 28.2 points per game — shot just 6-of-17 from the field, including 1-of-7 from 3. He finished with 17 points (six once the Pistons were in control) and felt that he was the victim of a bad whistle.
“It’s tough when you always get guarded by their best guy. They are holding and grabbing, but nothing gets called,” Thomas said. “It gets frustrating after a while because it’s blatant, and then they call it on us.”
In a battle of teams expected to finish near the bottom of the Eastern Conference in most preseason forecasts, the Nets (3-4) squandered command of a game they led for 15 consecutive minutes spanning the two halves. They led from the time that an 8-0 spurt erased their 37-36 deficit midway through the second quarter until late in the third quarter.
But the Pistons (2-5) clawed back to take a 76-73 lead with 3:08 remaining in the third quarter, when Tobias Harris knocked down a tiebreaking 19-footer and finished the 3-point play at line. In fact, the Pistons closed the third on a 22-8 run over the final seven minutes of the quarter.
“We end up shooting 20 mid-range shots and [allowing] points off turnovers in the second half,” Fernandez said. “That just kills you.”
Johnson scored 20 of the Nets’ first 44 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the floor and 5-of-5 from the free-throw line. He set a new season high with 22 before the end of the first half but went cold in the second half on the way to 26.
Johnson missed all seven 3s that he attempted in the second half but thought “all seven were going in.”
“Not getting to what we wanted to get to [run], some shots not falling and allowing that to impact the game,” Johnson said. “That’s how they play — try to force you to take contested 2s and not let easy layups or easy 3s, and we kind of fell into that too much. It had the desired effect.”
The Nets scored 32 points in the second quarter and just 35 total in the second half. Just like that, Fernandez’s pregame excitement over a possible three-game winning streak disappeared.
“All of us should’ve helped them better with play-calling and what to do, but this is a game we all have to look ourselves in the mirror and be better,” Fernandez said. “Going to help them with ‘Don’t do this again.’ [Attempting] 31 3s to 20 mid-range shots is pretty awful. We just don’t want to do that.”
Cade Cunningham’s 19 points paced six double-figure scorers for the Pistons, whose balanced attack beat the Nets’ two-man offensive operation. The crowd of 17,086 began to file out with three minutes remaining when Malik Beasley drained a 3 to give the Pistons their biggest lead at 101-87.
“We were forcing the ball out of certain guys’ hands on their end and making them have to move it around to find different hands in order to score. Not just letting their main guys get going,” Johnson said. “On our end, we can do a better job of sacrificial cuts and countering their aggression.”
The Nets were out-rebounded, 47-27 and converted just 19 of 31 free throws. All ills that need to be fixed on a quick turnaround to tonight’s home game against the Grizzlies.
“We have to do a better job on the boards,” Johnson said. “I think that’s a big part of the game.”
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