Brooklyn Drops Second Half of Back-to-Back Against Wizards After Beal Goes Off in the Fourth

The Nets get off to a hot start, but can't finish strong

In the second half of a back-to-back the Nets fall 113-107 to the Wizards in a much-needed win after their dominant performance last night. The Nets are now 3-2 in this 7-game stretch of facing teams below .500.

This just seemed like one of those games where the Nets didn’t have it tonight, at least to put forth a winning effort for a full 48 minutes. It was a game of two halves for Brooklyn, despite the fact that they went into the fourth quarter with an 84-81 lead.

In the first half the Nets shot an impressive 51.1% from the field and 50% from behind the arc in addition to dishing out 15 of their 25 assists.

Moving the ball is an area that Brooklyn has been thriving in as of late. For the season they average 23.8 APG but tonight was the seventh time since the New Year that they totaled 25+, and that’s out of 16 games. However, although they moved the ball well this was just one area where they weren’t consistent from start to finish and it led to them losing the game.

In the second half it was a totally different ball game for Brooklyn. They shot only 31.9% from the field and 17.4% from behind the arc, and dished out only 10 more assists. In addition to that, just like in the first half, in the second Spencer Dinwiddie and Joe Harris were the only two Nets players to score in double digits.

Another area they struggled in was committing fouls and hitting free throws, but this was nothing out of the ordinary for either squad. Both the Nets and Wizards average committing 20+ fouls a game, ranking them pretty low in the league. The Nets also are also a 73% free throw shooting team while the Wizards are a 78% free throw shooting team. Tonight both teams shot especially poorly from the charity stripe, hitting below 62% from there.

Despite the poor play, the Nets even had a 12-point lead at one point, but couldn’t hold on to it. To make matters even worse Brooklyn’s leading scorer Kyrie Irving went down with 5:29 left in the fourth with what looked like a pretty serious knee injury after getting tangled up with the Wizards’ Bradley Beal. From that point on Beal went on a tear and helped the Wizards finish off the Nets, going on a 15-6 run. Coincidentally, he led both teams by scoring 15 in the final period.

“No one’s going to feel bad for us. I don’t really expect anyone to feel bad for us. It’s the NBA. Things like this happen, and we’ve just got to pick each other up like we always do,” said Irving. “It’s just about us in the locker room and as we continue to move forward, continue to work at those goals that we have.”

X rays came back negative and Irving will undergo an MRI in the morning according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Dinwiddie led the way for the Nets with 26 points and six assists. Beal led the way for the Wizards with 34 points and six rebounds.