ORLANDO, Fla. — The Nets emptied the tank in Saturday’s must-have win in Miami.
They were clearly still on fumes in a desultory 119-106 loss to the Magic less than a day later.
George Patton once said fatigue makes cowards of us all. It also makes terrible shooters, with Mikal Bridges having a stellar performance wasted because none of his teammates — with just 22 hours between tipoff times — could put the ball in the basket.
“I mean yeah, there’s a lot of excuses in the world, but that’s definitely one. Just the traveling and not having 24 hours before and having a tough game in Miami,” Bridges said. “Give credit to Orlando, too, they’ve been playing well. I know they’ve been not winning all their games, but they’ve been playing well. … They just played harder than us.”
Bridges poured in 44 points, one shy of his career-high. He shot 6 of 9 from deep and 12 of 12 from the charity stripe, both career-highs squandered.
The rest of the Nets’ roster mustered just 52 points, and made only 2 of 26 from behind the arc.
“Really, we didn’t make shots, if you want to boil it down to one particular thing. Besides Mikal we were 2-for-26 from 3. So we were searching, trying to find ways to score the basketball,” coach Jacque Vaughn said. “I’m not an excuse guy, guys gave what they had across the board. Tough back-to-back, a lot of learning lessons.”
The Nets (40-35) have lost six of seven and fell back into a flat-footed tie with Miami in their bid for the sixth and final guaranteed playoff berth in the Eastern Conference, ahead by only the head-to-head tiebreaker.
They also stumbled two full games behind the fifth-place Knicks.
The Nets not only couldn’t build on the momentum of Saturday’s huge victory in Miami — when they beat the Heat to climb out of the precarious play-in — but apparently couldn’t recover from it. On a quick turnaround in this back-to-back — tipping off at 8 p.m. in Miami and 6 p.m. the next day in Orlando — Brooklyn couldn’t buy a basket.
The Nets had just three players in double figures, Cam Thomas (18 points) and Cam Johnson (10 points) the only help for Bridges.
Meanwhile, Orlando shot 52.9 percent and put eight players in double figures, led by Cole Anthony’s 21.
“They kind of controlled the energy of the game. We were step behind a little bit and that’s probably part of the reason why we lost,” Johnson said.
“They [were] getting out in transition. Back-to-back, the heavy legs so we didn’t get back on defense, stuff like that. They were getting in our paint. So it was just a tough game overall,” Day’Ron Sharpe said. “I didn’t really look at the box score to see the 3s, but back-to-back, heavy legs, so I guess that played a part in it.”
It was Sharpe who gave the Nets a 38-37 lead on an alley oop midway through the second quarter. But it was the last lead they would hold.
The Nets allowed an 11-2 run and never recovered.
Rookie and top overall pick Paolo Banchero’s layup off a Franz Wagner feed capped the run and left Brooklyn in an eight-point hole with four minutes left in the half.
The deficit was 60-51 at intermission, and 92-74 after three quarters on an Anthony floater.
Orlando went into the fourth quarter with seven — yes, seven — scorers in double figures. Brooklyn had a grand total of one, Bridges left hung out to dry with little to no help offensively. The deficit reached 20 in the final period.
“It’s tough coming off a back-to-back like this, two games in less than 24 hours. So I’m pretty sure our legs got fatigued a little bit,” Thomas said. “Can’t make no excuses; it’s the NBA, part of our schedule.”
