For the third straight game, Coach Jason Kidd’s Brooklyn Nets made the stop necessary to send a game they had been losing at some point in the fourth to overtime. For Coach Kidd, that’s a definite positive.

The next step, however, is finishing that game with an overtime win—and the Nets have shown over the last two that they’re not quite there yet.

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Brooklyn battled hard to break the trend in Charlotte on Thursday night, but in a third consecutive game sent to overtime, the Bobcats proved too much for the shorthanded Nets to handle and the result was a 116-111 loss.

The three-game road trip, which culminated in Charlotte, was trying for the Nets. Playing three road games in four days is taxing on any team. Throw in the absence of key players like Kevin Garnett, Andrei Kirilenko and Marcus Thornton — giving the team a short bench — and the odds were stacked against Brooklyn on Wednesday, especially coming off consecutive hard-fought overtime games in Dallas and New Orleans.

But the Nets hung in and gave it their all for another 53 minutes and there’s not much more Coach Kidd could ask for.

“We had a lot of great looks coming down the stretch

[in the fourth quarter] that we capitalized on, and then starting overtime we had some good looks that didn’t go in. But we fought until the end and put ourselves in a position to win,” he said after the loss. “This is a great game for us to learn from. The last three have been tough, but we’re getting better as a team.”


The Nets showed flashes of improvement throughout the game. In the first quarter, it was all Deron Williams. The star point guard scored 18 points in the quarter, showing shades of his 57-point performance in the same building just over two years ago. Headed by Williams’ 7-of-8 shooting in the first, Brooklyn had a 28-24 advantage after one.

The second quarter saw the Nets and Bobcats trade shot after shot. As a result, the lead changed hands seven times. Defensively, Brooklyn did its best to contain Charlotte center Al Jefferson. But the Bobcats big man, who had been held down by the Nets on multiple occasions this year, adjusted his game and thrived on Wednesday night, pouring in 22 first half points. Afterward, Coach Kidd explained that the Nets expected Jefferson to make an adjustment.

“He was going quicker, and we thought he would go a little bit quicker,” Jason said. “He caught it a little bit deeper so the double team couldn’t get there and he was going away from the double team. Being a veteran in this league, we kind of knew he would do something different.”

Brooklyn Nets v Charlotte Bobcats

Despite the outburst from Jefferson, the Nets were able to take a 59-58 halftime lead. Foul trouble from the Bobcats led to extra trips to the free throw line for the Nets and Brooklyn also shot an impressive 54 percent from the field in the first half. Williams nearly matched Jefferson’s output with 20 points at the break, while Mirza Teletovic added 13 points on 3-of-6 shooting off the bench.

In the third quarter, Brooklyn’s fatigue began to show. The tightness of the last three contests coupled with the lack of depth on the bench forced Jason to give his starters increased minutes. Charlotte took full advantage of this, outscoring the Nets 25-19 in the third.

The third quarter scoring drought put Brooklyn behind 83-78 to start the final quarter of action. However, the Nets made a strong push on the shoulders of Williams.

Brooklyn Nets v Charlotte Bobcats

Back-to-back three-pointers from Teletovic and Williams quickly cut Charlotte’s advantage from eight to two with just over five minutes remaining in regulation. The Nets stayed within two possessions of the Cats heading into the final minute, where a chance to draw even or take the lead finally arose.

After Chris Douglas-Roberts missed a three-pointer that would’ve put the Bobcats in front by five with 1:15 to go, Williams made a driving layup to finally tie the score.

Kemba Walker answered with a fade away jumper to give Charlotte a two-point lead, but D-Will buried a perimeter jumper in response that briefly appeared to give the Nets a one-point lead with 26 seconds remaining. However, the officials ruled Williams’ shot a two-pointer and the camera angle on several replays proved inconclusive, forcing the refs to stick with the original call.

While the officials went over the replay of Williams’ shot, Coach Kidd pulled his floor general aside and instructed him of a unique strategy to utilize Brooklyn’s foul to give. Coach Kidd decided that, rather than play the Charlotte possession straight up and perhaps get a chance at a desperation shot for the Nets, he would have Williams give Brooklyn’s foul with less than 10 seconds left, forcing the Bobcats to reset their offense with minimal time remaining.

The strategy worked to perfection. After Williams fouled Walker with 7.8 to go, the Bobcats inbounded back to the point guard, who had just a few seconds to get a shot off one-on-one with Williams. D-Will stood tall, shadowing Walker’s every step and dribble, and the Charlotte guard eventually fumbled the ball, sending the game to overtime.

“That was a great test for our defense and it withstood the test,” Coach Kidd said about the final play of regulation. “We got the stop. Three games in a row we got the stops we needed to send the game into overtime, so there are a lot of positives coming late [in games].

The overtime period proved to be too much for the Nets, who could not withstand the Charlotte offense and the bounces that went the Bobcats’ way.

With the Bobcats up 114-111 and less than 20 seconds remaining, Mason Plumlee made a key block, but the ball bounced into the hands of Chris Douglas-Roberts who buried a desperation jumper as the shot clock expired to secure the Charlotte victory.

“Everybody executed and did what they were supposed to do,” Coach Kidd said. “The ball just bounced their way.”

NEXT UP

Brooklyn (37-33) will return to the friendly confines of the Barclays Center on Friday night looking to bounce back against the Cleveland Cavaliers (29-44).

The Nets are 1-1 on the season against the Cavs, including a season opening loss for which Jason was not on the Nets bench. More recently Brooklyn beat Cleveland by a score of 89-82 on January 4th. Deron Williams scored 21 points in the matchup and Paul Pierce added 17. But it was the defensive effort like Brooklyn had in that game that Coach Kidd wants to see more of.

After routinely holding teams in the 80’s and low 90’s on the scoreboard in January, February and early March, the Nets have allowed opponents to score at least 95 points in each of their last nine games. In terms of overall defensive effort, J-Kidd talked after the loss to Charlotte about the importance of staying active.

“Our deflections were low,” he said. “That was talked about at halftime. We weren’t active. We have to get back to being active. It may be a combination of things, a lot of minutes played, a lot of games going into overtime. We’re trying to get the minutes down for some guys, but right now we’re playing a lot of overtime games so it’s hard.”

The Nets will look to increase the activity on Friday night when they host Cleveland. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. and the game can be seen on the YES Network or via NBA League Pass.

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