3 Takeaways from the Brooklyn Nets Humdrum Loss to Washington Wizards

Nothing much changed tonight. Nets lost to the league’s worst team for the second time and it didn’t effect the standings or lottery odds. Boring.

The Brooklyn Nets vs the Washington Wizards on a Monday night in the dog days of the season was just as messy as you thought it would be. Messy, but fun.

Some chippy play, a career-shooting night for Ziaire Williams, 41 collective turnovers, and enough Marcus Smart and Khris Middleton nostalgia for the die-hard Bucks and Celtics fans that tuned in — the game brought something for everyone. That even includes all you tank commanders out there hoping to collect as many Ls as possible right now.

It all boiled into a 107-99 final score in favor of the home team, giving them their 10th win of the season and forcing Brooklyn to take a sudden step back from the Play-In after tip-toeing closer and closer to it all month. An eventual retreat from Brooklyn was always expected, but not at the hands of these guys.

Unforeseen or not, a loss is still a loss, and from those we often learn the most. In our last look at Washington before things get really interesting in terms of lottery positioning, here are a few things to takeaway.

Reliance on Effort Can be Double-Edged

Brooklyn’s defensive renaissance in their season’s latter half can largely be attributed to how they decisively apply pressure and then recover. That’s accomplished with their bigs in the drop or wings on the weak side who hedge on ball-screens, positioning themselves to blitz yet also recover in time to defend the pass out.

But that “in-between” positioning by the off-ball man is just where things start. When teams inevitably key into this and begin swinging around the rock to beat the double or catch the hedging defender off guard, the rest of the team needs to quickly with their closeouts. That side of things almost always comes down to hustle.

Tonight, Brooklyn didn’t complete that side of the equation for much of the first half. As you’d expect, they got burned for it.

While the Nets also shot north of 40% from three in the first, the Wizards went into the break with an eight-point advantage after going a blistering 10-16 from deep. They stretched around Brooklyn’s defense like a small tortilla on a full-sized plate. As long as they kept it up, you knew it would eventually rip.

When so much of your game, particularly your defense, relies on your ability to work harder than your opponent can think rather than your personnel, bringing it every night is vital to your success. The Nets didn’t for long enough and that’s why they missed out on more of that.

The second half’s defense sure had its moments, particularly when they forced 15 of Washington’s 23 turnovers, eventually snatching a season-high 14 steals for the game. But that early hole made their second-half surge a comeback effort rather than one where they inflate a lead. That, plus a dry spell in the fourth, equals a loss.

We Can Only Get Away with the PG Rotation for So Long

When you beat Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and Paul George with Killian Hayes and Trendon Watford as your point guards, you can and should feel a bit giddy. That goes for the fans, coaching staff. You played with house money and you won.

But for as much as those two have surpassed expectations in the past week or so, at the end of the day, that’s a guy playing somewhat out of position and another guy who was out of the league until a few days ago in the driver’s seat for you. Brooklyn could only get away with that for so long, and tonight, we were told that the buck stops in Washington.

“We were not able to have good enough offense in the fourth quarter to win the game,” Jordi Fernández said postgame. “And that was obvious, right? 12 points in the fourth, you don’t give yourself a chance.”

Indeed, Brooklyn only putting in a dozen in the final frame ultimately sunk their ship even after patching their holes at the defensive end. While Hayes and Watford each took turns looking to get Cam Johnson looks down the stretch, the Washington defense was all over it. Watford became especially frustrated, picking up a tech late as well.

It’s easy to forget Marcus Smart is on the Wizards — so it’s also easy to forget that Watford was dealing with a DPOY out there tonight. But once you remind yourself of that, it all becomes pretty damn understandable, so cut him some slack.

Once more, I know some folks around here like to root for losses, but to go for the win, the team could have used a more poised ball-handler and one more accustomed to creating their own shot if needed to stretch out the defense and make the right reads down the stretch.

Perhaps it’s a bit dramatic to say of the latter because this was only his second game out, but Cam Thomas and D’Angelo Russell, you were dearly missed this evening.

Expect the Unexpected

Only three other teams in the East had more wins than the Brooklyn Nets in the month of February coming into tonight. I know it’s the shortest month of the year and it’s not even over yet — but even with that said — that’s something you probably didn’t expect to read about the team this year. I sure as hell know I never expected to write it.

So a surging team should beat the worst one the league, right? The snappy thing to say here would be “WRONG,” but that’d be inaccurate too. Yes, the Nets should have beaten Washington tonight. But…what should happen never does with these guys.

By all accounts preseason, the Nets should have around 10 wins right now — not 20+. They should be getting blown out by most of their opponents — not making them sweat into the game’s dwindling minutes. They should be thinking solely about the draft right now — not sneaking through Play-In’s back door.

You see, we’re getting to a point now where this backwardness feels like a theme for the season. There’s no wiggle room on it either, no matter if that means things land in a negative or positive sense for the team.

So, you think 56 games is enough time to think you have a basketball team figured out? WRONG. There you go.