SAN FRANCISCO — This Western swing was all the time going to be a troublesome journey for the Nets.
Saturday evening’s 124-120 defeat at Golden State ensured it could be a dropping one.
The Nets (13-12) wasted a superb 41-point outing from Cam Thomas in entrance of a sellout crowd of 18,064 at Chase Middle, and have misplaced three of their first 4 video games on this swing, with simply Monday in Utah left.
“Sure, an awesome half about taking part in on the street is the adversity that you just face — whether or not the opposite evening planning the back-to-back, whether or not it’s taking part in high-level groups and having a lesser margin for error,” Brooklyn coach Jacque Vaughn stated. “Once more, you’re ready the place should you don’t have the psychological fortitude to maneuver on to the subsequent play, you’ll pay for it in a number of methods.”
Clearly their margin is wafer-thin.
Thomas had a sixth 40-point recreation by the age of twenty-two, surpassing Bernard King for probably the most in franchise historical past. Spencer Dinwiddie had 16 factors, handed out a season-high 14 assists with simply two turnovers, whereas middle Nic Claxton had 19 factors, 12 rebounds and a season-high-tying 4 blocks.
And it wasn’t sufficient.
Golden State (11-14) had performed a league-high 20 “clutch video games” — tilts inside 5 factors within the closing 5 minutes of regulation or time beyond regulation. And so they knew the best way to pull this one out.
Stephen Curry had 37 factors on 6-for-8 taking pictures from deep.
He cracked the three,500 mark for profession 3-pointers and hit from downtown in a 268th straight common season recreation — each NBA data.
And he made the killer daggers from deep within the closing levels.
“That’s the shifting on to the subsequent possession [element],” Vaughn stated. “He’s going to make pictures that different human beings simply can’t make, and make performs that different human beings can’t make. So can you’ve gotten a number of efforts all through the course of the evening, play with a way of physicality all through the course of the evening, after which transfer on to the subsequent possession; simply because it’s crucial for us to play with the tempo tonight and make or miss actually get the ball up the ground.”
Main 17-16 on a Cam Johnson drive, the Nets surrendered a fast 6-0 mini-run to fall behind by 5 when Chris Paul discovered Dario Saric for a 3-pointer.
The deficit was seven when the Nets allowed an 11-0 two-minute blitz.
Down 55-48 after a Claxton layup, Brooklyn missed 4 straight pictures and dedicated a few turnovers, rapidly dropping contact.
The deficit bloated to 66-48 on a Jonathan Kuminga putback with 2:21 left within the first half.
It was nonetheless an 18-point deficit early within the third, earlier than Brooklyn slowly and inexorably shaved that gap in half with lower than a minute remaining within the quarter.
Royce O’Neale and Thomas sandwiched 3-pointers round a Paul miss to get the Nets inside 92-89 with a half-minute left within the third.
And after a quiet begin to the evening — three factors at halftime on 1-for-6 taking pictures — Mikal Bridges drilled a left-corner 3-pointer to lastly put the Nets forward 99-97 with 9:12 to play.
However with the rating knotted at 106-all, Curry untied it.
He hit from 27 toes, then — after Brandin Podziemski stole a nasty Bridges move — a 30-footer that despatched the Nets scurrying right into a timeout.
It didn’t assist.
Thomas misplaced the ball — one other Podziemski theft — and Curry’s midrange jumper left Brooklyn down 114-106 with 4:34 in regulation.
O’Neale pulled Brooklyn inside 120-118 with two minutes left, however no nearer.