The Nets performance was disastrous at both ends of the floor Wednesday against the Knicks, putting a negative exclamation point on what has been a dreadful two-way fall back into tank mode following a brief surge in December.
Over their past 13 games, the Nets have posted the worst collective net rating — a stat that measures a team’s point differential per 100 possessions — in the NBA of -13.0.
That metric breaks down to the No. 29 defensive rating in the league of 122.2 points allowed per 100 possessions — better than only the Jazz — compared to a No. 28 offensive rating of 109.1 points scored per 100.
Brooklyn is tied with the league-worst Pelicans for the most losses over the past 13 games, with 11 apiece entering Friday’s home game against the Celtics.
The hideous 120-66 loss at the Garden was rightly deemed “unacceptable” by Nets forward Noah Clowney, and head coach Jordi Fernández took the brunt of the responsibility on his shoulders for the worst output by any team in the NBA this season.
The Nets were dominated on the glass — 56-27 overall and 8-4 in offensive rebounds — and they shot just 27.5 percent (11-for-40) from 3-point range, compared to 50.0 percent (16-for-32) for the Knicks.
“I have to help them better. The last 12 games we have been poor defensively and poor offensively and that falls on me,” Fernández said. “You see 20 points in the paint, so that means you’re probably not aggressive enough. You see zero second-chance points, we have rules to go get those boards. … Zero, it’s really hard to do.
“The percentages are the percentages, sometimes shots go in or don’t go in, but you’ve got to give them credit. They were the most physical team, they were the best team out there and we just gotta learn from it and move on and like I said, I got a lot to figure out.”
Fernández believed his team “played to an acceptable standard” in Monday’s nine-point home loss to the Suns, but they mostly have been unable to replicate the team’s promising 7-3 stretch in December, including impressive wins against Toronto, Philadelphia and Minnesota.
“Consistently…it again falls on me more on a consistent basis,” Fernández added. “I have a great group of coaches that will help me and give me great ideas.
“I have a group of guys that show up and work and have positive energy, so I believe in the players. I believe in the coaches and this doesn’t stop the plan that we have. It’s just obviously a tough experience to go through, but we’ll be better. Me, the first one…It was my fault. I didn’t prepare them to compete at the highest level.”
Rookie Drake Powell said he “100 percent” disagreed and countered that such poor performances are “ultimately on [the players].”
Clowney added that the team did not execute Fernández’s intended game plan, calling the performance “as bad as it can get.”
“I mean, we’ve got to be better on our own, too,” Clowney said. “I’m not getting into the politics of what I think about this or that. As far as coaching goes, for me I felt like the little stuff that we said we wanted to do, we didn’t do.
“Offensively, we didn’t do it. And defensively we were disastrous; we didn’t get back for the [most] part, they lit our ass up [from] 3, and had everything they wanted.”
Jayson Tatum (torn Achilles) and Josh Minott (ankle) remain out for Boston. Rookie guard Ben Saraf remains on a G-League assignment for the Nets.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
