The regular season head coaching debut of Jason Kidd didn’t go as expected for the Brooklyn Nets.

Fresh off a huge victory over the defending NBA Champion on Thursday night in Brooklyn, the Nets saw their momentum quickly stymied by the worst team in the league last year, the Orlando Magic, who handed the Nets a 107-86 road loss on Sunday night in Orlando. The game was Jason’s first as coach after assistant Joe Prunty coached the team for the first two games.

“You can only learn from it,” Jason said of taking his first official loss. “

[Be it] success, or if things don’t go well, you can only learn from it.”

One thing Brooklyn learned in the loss on Sunday is that offense won’t always come easy and when it doesn’t the team must not have a letdown on defense as well. The Nets were clearly off their game offensively and shot just 38 percent from the field and 23.5 percent from three. But after spending much of training camp working on defensive principles that could make up for a bad offensive night, Coach Kidd was disappointed that Brooklyn allowed their offensive struggles leak into their defense.

“We can’t let our offense dictate our defense if we want to be an elite team,” Jason said. “Some nights the ball is going to go in, but you can always give the effort and execute on the defensive end and tonight we just didn’t do that.”

The game was in stark contrast to the way Brooklyn played against Miami. The Nets shot nearly 50 percent from the field and exactly 50 percent from deep in that victory. The Nets went cold in Orlando, so J-Kidd urged his team to move the ball into the paint and find easier points. However, that effort simply wasn’t enough to overcome a strong game by the Magic.

“We missed some wide open looks—and we made those in the last game,” Coach Kidd said. “Every game is going to be different. We can’t live and die by the jump shot. When things aren’t going well, you have to figure out how to get the ball in the paint or get to the free throw line.”

Brooklyn did see a bright spots from two of its All-Stars, center Brook Lopez and swingman Paul Pierce. Lopez had a game-high 21 points and six rebounds, while Pierce added 16 points and a team-high seven boards. Despite the efforts from that duo, Jason would like to see better performances on the glass going forward.

“They outworked us on the boards,” J-Kidd said. “That’s one of our goals, being a bigger team, is being able to rebound the ball and we just didn’t do that tonight.”

Orlando benefited from a big night by first-year guard Victor Oladipo. The rookie out of Indiana led the Magic with 19 points, four assists and six rebounds coming off the bench. J-Kidd lauded the rookie after his big game.

“He’s a talented rookie,” Jason said of Oladipo. “He’s everything he was built up to be and his future is very bright…He had his way tonight.”

Brooklyn’s up-and-down season thus far is indicative of its roster turnover during the offseason. Pierce and forward Kevin Garnett made just their third starts in Brooklyn uniforms. Several other newcomers made contributions as well, including Shaun Livingston, Alan Anderson, Jason Terry, Andrei Kirilenko and first-round draft pick Mason Plumlee.

Though Game 1 as coach wasn’t the storybook beginning he had hoped for, Jason said he and his team will look back at the tape of Sunday’s with plenty to sharpen up and improve on, particularly on the defensive end.

“No one was hanging their head,” J-Kidd said. “Instead of playing team defense we started to give creases to their guys and they started to take advantage of that…When we look back at it tomorrow, there are some things have to clean up and get better at.”

NEXT UP

J-Kidd and the Nets will now look forward to his regular-season coaching debut at the Barclays Center, Tuesday against the Utah Jazz.

Brooklyn dropped two tough contests to the Jazz last season. However, Jason had more success against the Western Conference contenders while playing point for the New York Knicks last season.

J-Kidd’s Knicks dropped the Jazz twice, once in New York and one in Salt Lake City. Jason’s best game against the Jazz last season came in Salt Lake, when he notched seven points and a game-high five dimes.

He’ll try to come up with a recipe for success for his new squad when Utah visits Brooklyn. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. ET tip and Coach Kidd’s Barclays debut will be broadcast on YES.

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