Once again the Nets were right in the thick of a fourth-quarter slugfest. And once again they took it on the chin and never got back up, floored 121-102 by the Raptors before 17,732 at Barclays Center.
Even the return of Caris LeVert couldn’t help. It stretched the Nets’ losing streak to an NBA-worst five straight, with all but one of those defeats coming thanks to a late implosion. This repeat is getting old.
“Fourth quarter. Last four out of five games, we were right there, or led, or close. That’s a big theme right now,” Kenny Atkinson admitted. “We have to figure out why. Fourth quarters have really been a thorn in our sides. It was again [Saturday]. We competed for three quarters of the game, a little bit more than three quarters.
“When we subbed the starters back in the game, it was a six- or seven-point game and then they went on a run. I’ve seen that film before recently, so we have to figure it out. We have to figure out why we’re running out of gas.”
It could be a horrible matchup, the Nets falling to 1-17 in their past 18 against the Raptors (24-12). Or it could be fatigue, with the Nets’ starters having logged more minutes since LeVert and Kyrie Irving went down than any five-man unit in the league.
Either way, they had another late-game capitulation. Spencer Dinwiddie had 23 points, LeVert added 13 in his first game since Nov. 10 and the Nets led by 16. But they folded again late, averaging a league-worst 20.6 fourth-quarter points during their skid.
“Just looking at it, defensively, we’ve given up a lot of points in these fourth-quarter stretches — where it may be a lack of execution on one end or the other,” said Joe Harris, who had 18 points and five assists.
“[Saturday] was cumulative — it built up there in the third, where we gave up 35 points. In the fourth we gave up 38, which is way too many. You’re not going to win a lot of games, especially finishing out games like that.”
The Nets led 52-36 with 3:38 left in the half when Harris found Taurean Prince for a 3. But they didn’t muster a single point before the break, watching the Raptors score the final dozen to get within four by halftime. And once it became a game, the champs went out and seized it.
The Nets (16-18) were clinging to a 68-64 edge on a Dinwiddie free throw with 4:45 left in the third quarter. But a quick 6-0 run by Toronto let them snatch the momentum.
The Nets were still hanging around down just 85-83 after a Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot free throw, then the Raptors reeled off a 15-5 run to take complete control. The Nets fell behind by 12 points and saw that balloon to 20.
The Raptors’ Fred VanVleet had 29 points and 11 assists, and Kyle Lowry added 26.
The Nets gave up a 15-6 edge on the offensive glass and committed 24 turnovers while forcing only seven. And by the end, they allowed 30 more shots than they took. It’s hard to win that way.
“It’s adjustments, its focus, it’s a mixture of all things. But us as players, we’ve got to be able to respond,” DeAndre Jordan said. “I think it’s an all-around problem. But we’ve got to fix it. It’s been what, five games in a row? So that’s pretty bad. We’re going through a rough patch right now.”