Brooklyn Nets lose plodding game to Minnesota Timberwolves, 105-90

The clock is ticking, the offseason is almost here. Another loss adorns the Brooklyn Nets record, ending a two-game win streak, though the scoreboard doesn’t reveal much.

Jordi Fernández, in his rookie year as an NBA head coach, has been the MVP of the Brooklyn Nets. Truly quantifying the value of coaching being near impossible, you can argue that Cam Johnson is another strong candidate for MVP. That said, Fernández’s strong debut goes beyond X’s and O’s, game management.

In year 0 of a rebuild, a bad team that hasn’t yet had the opportunity to acquire exciting young talent will plays extraordinarily hard. They will play together, will be resilient, and are far more fun to watch than a 25-51 record would suggest. And they speak glowingly of their head coach.

There is much valid criticism to make over that 25-51 record, which, with some tweaking in their final six games — starting with Thursday’s home clash against the Minnesota Timberwolves — will be sixth-worst in the NBA. Certainly, you know the deal by now.

But the very first step of this rebuild, hiring Fernández, looks like a smash hit.

On Thursday, Fernández left a bigger imprint on the game than he had all season. In the second quarter, he inadvertently injured Minnesota’s leader Anthony Edwards…

Thankfully, Edwards would return in the second half, and the drama of a coach injuring an opposing star player quickly subsided. Well, “injured” sounds harsh, given the obvious accidental nature of the incident, but all’s well that ends well.

Said Fernández: “I was out of bounds, trying to move out of the way. Definitely got to be faster than that, because, you know, this place, health is the most important thing in the game. So next time I just got to move faster.”

Of greater concern, both with Edwards on and off the court, Brooklyn kept the scoreboard close enough to avoid embarrassment. Bogged down by injuries, Fernández played yet another unique starting lineup, featuring both Maxwell Lewis and Trendon Watford, who both reached double-digit points.

Brooklyn’s best player, though, was Nic Claxton, who took his matchup with Rudy Gobert personally. He put up 18/6/5, self-creating a great many of his buckets from the middle of the floor; it was the vision — one that hasn’t often come to fruition — many had for Claxton at the beginning of a year in which opportunity was guaranteed…

Behind Claxton, the Nets shot over 50% from two, even outscoring the Wolves in the paint.

But the Wolves were much more forceful inside. Rudy Gobert put up a monster 21-and-18 double-double, pushing Claxton around and feasting on some otherwise porous backline D from Brooklyn’s wings and guards. Anthony Edwards, unbothered by the ankle twist, led the Wolves with 28, and as any strong playoff team does, they got well-rounded contributions.

They also suffocated Brooklyn athletically, getting to the line 21 times to Brooklyn’s staggeringly low count of four. Just four free-throws. Fernández brought that up, unprompted, in his postgame interview.

“You see the free throw disparity, 21 to four. We took 30 rim-attempts and 49 paint shots. So if you do your math, that doesn’t seem right. So, those are things we cannot control.”

Thanks to such few breaks, and pretty uninteresting play on the whole, it flew by. D’Angelo Russell nearly escaped mention in this article, as I nearly forgot his 13 invisible, scoreless minutes. No, really, scoreless.

When asked about the rationale for his low-minute count, Fernández had this to say: “Number one is to be get a look at these younger guys during an important part of the game, where you can see how they handle it. But yeah, he’s been dealing with the ankle and just trying to be smart with that too.”

Those younger guys acquitted themselves well, between a couple Drew Timme floaters over Rudy Gobert and 13 points from Tosan Evbuomwan. Dariq Whitehead, though, joined Keon Johnson as the only guy that could make a jumper, scoring 17 points off the bench on 5-of-9 from deep…

The 20-year-old is now shooting better than 40% from deep in his 14 NBA games.

Postgame, Whitehead said his focus is “just doing the right things. I’m sure me as well as the coaches have know by now how, you know, talented I am offensively. I’m gonna make shots. For me, it’s just doing the right thing and earning coach’s trust, being in the right spots on defense, doing the right things.”

Though Whitehead shot 0-of-4 from two, flashing some of the concerns for his prospects…

…it was a fun night for the 20-year-old who’s been through so much injury strife in his young basketball career.

Following the loss to Minnesota, there are five games left in Brooklyn’s season. They are all but locked into the sixth-best lottery odds. Barring true catastrophe or miracle, the outcome of their season has been decided. May this final stretch bring more fleeting moments, and a blessed offseason. Amen.

Final Score: Minnesota Timberwolves 102, Brooklyn Nets 87

Nets host Jason Collins for Pride Night

Once again, Brooklyn invited ex-Net Jason Collins back to the building for Pride Night…

“It means a lot,” he said on the YES Network broadcast. “The Nets organization is first-class all the way. It’s incredible to see the support and to be invited back every year.”

Collins began his career with the New Jersey Nets, playing parts of seven seasons for the franchise including the two Finals runs. However, his most famous stint with the team comprised just 22 games in 2013-14, with the team in Brooklyn.

After coming out as gay the previous year, he signed with the Nets in February 2014, becoming the first active, gay player in the Big Four American sports.

“What I remember about that the most was just the support,” said Collins. “The support not only from ownership, from general manager, but obviously, from J-Kidd being the head coach, to my teammates. Everybody had my back, everybody was fully on board with me being back in the NBA, going out there to help make plays to help our team win ballgames. And that’s what it’s all about. We work so hard as professional athletes, and this is our craft.”

Next Up

Photo by Vaughn Ridley/NBAE via Getty Images

Brooklyn can’t technically clinch (at least) the sixth-best lotto odds with a loss to the Toronto Raptors in their next game, but they can essentially wrap it up. Toronto will visit Barclays Center on Sunday afternoon, with tip-off scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET.

• Boxscore: Minnesota Timberwolves 105, Brooklyn Nets 90 – NBA
• Game Highlights: Minnesota Timberwolves 105, Brooklyn Nets 90 (Video) – NBA
• Jordi Fernández and Dariq Whitehead Postgame Press Conferences vs MIN (Video) – Brooklyn Nets
• Edwards shakes off injury scare and scores 28 points to lead Timberwolves past Nets 105-90 – AP
• Anthony Edwards shakes off injury, pulls Wolves past Nets – Reuters
• Nets give youngsters a bigger shot in loss to Timberwolves – Brian Lewis – New York Post
• Ziaire Williams’ one big improvement could have free agency ramifications – Brian Lewis – New York Post
• Jordi Fernandez faces backlash after Anthony Edwards injury scare in Nets loss to Timberwolves – C.J. Holmes – New York Daily News
• Nets Notebook: How Ziaire Williams improved his market value – C.J. Holmes – New York Daily News