Nets are East’s final winless team as season takes concerning turn with loss to Pistons

Coming off their best effort of the season, the Nets cratered with their worst offensive showing of the year. Brooklyn got smothered 110-94 by the visiting Pistons before a sellout crowd of 17,548 at Barclays Center. 

It came on the heels of a 125-124 overtime heartbreaker in Boston, when they led for much of the night in TD Garden and looked cohesive and competitive. They were neither Friday night against visiting Detroit. 

The defeat didn’t just keep the Nets winless at 0-5. In their first NBA Cup tilt of the season — where point differential is the second tiebreaker, right after head-to-head — it put them behind the eight ball already in Group A, against Toronto, Orlando and Milwaukee. 

And certainly against these Pistons, who gave them a caning. 

“I think we’re in this stage of a group that when we hit adversity, it’s how we react to it,” admitted head coach Jordi Fernández. “And I think we started well, doing the right things. And then the other team responds, and then you see, like, dropping shoulders and not the same energy, something [like] that. We have to be [better]; we can control those things.” 

The Nets weren’t any kind of better. Brooklyn shot just 40.3 percent overall and 11 of 37 from 3-point range, committing almost two dozen turnovers. 

The Nets actually played feisty defense at times, holding the Pistons to 42.2 percent and 12-for-41 from 3. But they got outscored 27-11 in fast-break points, and the Pistons ran them off their own court in the second and third quarters, when Brooklyn combined for 13 turnovers and just nine baskets. 

“I feel like we’re having trouble sustaining good basketball. Start off the first quarter great and then lose the second quarter on 14. And the majority of that came in the last two or three minutes of the second quarter. And then it just kind of spiraled,” said Julius Randle. “So we have to be better at just answering adversity. As well as the games we’re on, you’re gonna get punched in the face. But we have to be better at how we respond.” 

Pistons superstar Cade Cunningham finished with a game-high 20 points. Moritz Wagner led the Nets with 16 points. Randle had 15, and Michael Porter Jr. finished with 13. 

Brooklyn had their first double-digit lead of the young season when they went ahead 33-23 on Randle’s free throw with 10:44 left in the second quarter. 

And they were still ahead 37-29 on his foul shot 1:17 later. 

But that’s when their offense got smothered by Detroit’s dominant defense. The Nets coughed up a 27-12 Pistons run to close the half, flipping an eight-point cushion into a seven-point deficit that just grew in the third quarter. 

Brooklyn missed 11 of their final 12 shots in the first half — including smoking a pair of layups — and committed four turnovers. By the time they fell asleep defensively and gave up Ausar Thompson’s driving reverse layup with less than a second left in the half, the Nets trailed 56-49 heading into the locker room. 

Once they came back out, things just got worse. 

After shooting just 3 of 14 in the second quarter, they gave away nine turnovers in the third. 

As bad as the missed shots were, the giveaways were far worse. Brooklyn got outscored 12-0 in points off turnovers in that third quarter, one that saw them blitzed 36-17. 

The game was never close from there. The Nets trailed by as many as 30 on their home floor in the fourth, down 96-66 on a bucket by Paul Reed. 

Detroit’s backup center was only starting because All-NBA star Jalen Duren was out with a hamstring strain. But the Nets couldn’t take advantage. 

What did they struggle with the most? 

“Everything. Everything. I’m going to flush this one,” said Porter. “Tough shots, no flow to our offense. Defensively, it wasn’t our worst game; offensively, we were not playing how we needed to play. 

“When you lose five games straight, it can be tough. But we got to continue to watch film and do our best to stay connected as a group, do our best to stay positive, do your best to come out next game and do better than we did this game. I think we took a step forward the Boston game, a couple steps backwards tonight.”