The nets aren’t going to bid for an NBA tournament playing defense like this

The Brooklyn Nets scored 146 points on Sunday night and were still losing a basketball game to the NBA’s worst team.

One hundred and forty-six.

That’s because they allowed the Washington Wizards to earn 149 points, including six during a 3.8-second race during a rush. The Wizards have four medals this season – four – and half of them are against the Nets.

With their shiny new “Big 3” of James Harden, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, the Nets are third in the league in offensive effectiveness, but 25th poor in defensive effectiveness.

The NBA Lakers defensive champion ranks first, the 76ers, No. 1 seed in the East, fourth, and the Clippers, who have their own designs for an NBA title, rank 13th.

The Nets don’t have to feature a top-5 defense, or even a top-10 defense, but they certainly do as one of the worst players in the league can’t and hope to compete for a title.

“Their offense as we know it is one of the most effective offenses ever, but their defense is one of the worst defenses ever,” said Grant Hill, NBA All-Star seven- time on NBA TV after Sunday’s game.

“And that recipe is not good for obvious reasons. You have the offensive firepower to go out and close games. You have three of your best finalists, three of the best quarterback representatives in their “Big 3”, but defensively they have to prove this. They have desires for competition. You expect some improvement at this stage of the season and have not been able to achieve. ”

The Nets have conceded 109 points in 13 of their last 14 games, the only one coming in a 98-85 win over Miami on Jan. 25. During that range, they have lost games in which they scored 110, 116, 135, 113, and 146 points.

The Nets have lost games this season with 135 and 146 points. Think about that.

On Sunday, they seemed to have control of the game going down the stretch despite Russell Westbrook and Bradley Beal coming together for 78 points. But they blew a five-point lead in the final 12.3 seconds and allowed the Wizards to score six points in 3.8 seconds, including a three-point lead by Westbrook with 4.3 clicks left to make the first lead of the second. give half to the Druids.

“We had that game,” Irving said on a Zoom call. “We should be. So we just look at ourselves in the mirror and see what we can correct as individuals and as a group, especially on effort. I couldn’t defend a stick today. Those guys were just walking around me, and I was feeling a little sad. ”

Head coach Steve Nash has been talking about the team’s need for better defense for weeks now. The team has signed big man Norvel Pelle who stops a bullet and defensive wing Iman Shumpert in an attempt to dig up the defense, but did not play Sunday.

“It didn’t mean enough stops,” Nash said. “We may have thought we had it in the bag, but too many times we let them waltz down the lane and get layups. We let our foot off the gas, thought we were going to win, and that is a dangerous game. ”

The Nets lost despite two players – Kevin Durant (37) and Joe Harris (30) – scoring 30+ points and two others – Irving (26) and Jeff Green (23) – scoring 20+. Harden did not play due to thigh contamination, Nash said, not “too hard.”

The final blow came when Timothe missed a Luwawu-Cabarrot layup in the final seconds off a pass from Harris.

“It was just a dumb mistake for me,” said Harris. “I was trying to get the ball out quickly and take it to Kevin, and that was one of those things where he was cutting to the edge and I was throwing the ball where I was. thinking it was going to go. ”

The Nets will turn around and host Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and the Clippers on Tuesday, after the Clippers posted 129 points on the Knicks Sunday at Madison Square Garden.

If the Nets want to ultimately compete heavily in the Eastern Conference and come during playoff time, they need to promise protection.

“You don’t go out on teams if you want to win competitions,” Hill said.

“The defense needs to improve. You don’t have to be a top-10 defensive team, but they do have to be average. If they can be average, they have a chance to do something special this season. ”