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James Harden looked focused and all-in. Nevertheless it wasn’t practically sufficient.
The Nets bought drilled 106-96 by the Lakers on Tuesday, run off their very own courtroom earlier than a sellout crowd of 18,126 — many sporting purple and gold, rooting for the guests.
LeBron James was stellar with 33 factors, seven rebounds and 6 assists. However frankly it was the Nets’ abysmal disarray on transition protection that noticed them humbled.
“Transition protection. Easy. We made too many psychological errors for no matter motive, which allowed them to get all these factors within the first half,” Harden mentioned. “Us being sensible, realizing when to crash the glass and when to get again. Fairly easy.”
Harden noticed his 33-point, 12-rebound, 11-assist effort go to waste. Or wasted by the Nets’ lack of ability — or unwillingness — to get again on protection.
The Lakers had a 27-9 edge in fast-break factors — together with a 10-0 discrepancy within the first quarter that noticed the Nets fall behind 33-25. They by no means recovered.
“I feel our emphasis going into the sport was transition protection. We gave up 20 transition factors within the first half,” coach Steve Nash mentioned. “I assumed we performed fairly onerous. I assumed we had an opportunity for lengthy stretches.
“Certain, we had been lacking guys and so they had their full complement, however I assumed we lacked a little bit little bit of consideration to element too typically to chop the hole. And our margin for error on an evening like [this] is tight and I feel that was in all probability the largest factor.”
Effectively, that and the Nets being with out each Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. And the Lakers getting again Anthony Davis for the primary time in 17 video games.
The Lakers went simply 7-10 with out Davis. However that they had 12 steals and 9 blocks — 4 by Davis, to get the quick break going.
On the very first play of the sport, James threw an ideal lob to Davis for a dunk. Simply 18 seconds into his return, Davis made the Nets really feel him.
Harden got here out aggressively on this one. The Lakers gave him house early, and he used it. Harden drilled a step-back 3-pointer on Davis, and had 11 factors and two assists out of the gate, the Nets main 15-12.
The Nets had been nonetheless clinging to a 23-21 edge once they surrendered an prolonged 21-6 run that basically ended the sport.
Some sketchy protection by James Johnson opened the door for James to beat the first-quarter buzzer with a driving layup and provides the Lakers an eight-point edge after one. Harden scored or assisted on each Web basket besides a Johnson put-back, and when he went to the bench for his first relaxation, the Nets bought outscored 9-4 to open the second.
Carmelo Anthony’s 3 made it 42-29 earlier than Harden returned, and Brooklyn by no means noticed the lead once more.
The Nets trailed 45-31 on a nook 3 by Malik Monk (22 factors).
Brooklyn was nonetheless down 69-58 earlier than Harden sparked an 11-2 run, his free throws with 6:32 left within the third pulling them inside 71-69. However no nearer, as James and their very own porous transition protection opened the lead again up.
“Simply communication. It’s one thing that we talked about at shoot round, was simply not listening to the main points,” Johnson mentioned. “, it’s one thing — like I mentioned — the gamers bought to be sure that occurs. Our workers does an incredible job of giving us the main points and issues that we have to do to assist us achieve success and we simply didn’t execute.”
Joe Harris was in Indianapolis on Monday getting a second opinion on his ankle, in keeping with Yahoo. The veteran wing suffered a setback in his comeback from Nov. 29 surgical procedure.
“That’s customary. We get opinions repeatedly,” Nash mentioned. “Our docs do an incredible job and so they’re going to hunt completely different opinions as effectively.”
Nic Claxton made his return to the courtroom after lacking seven straight video games with a good left hamstring. He had six factors and 7 boards in 17:16, whereas Blake Griffin didn’t play.
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