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Nets fall to Raptors in ugly fashion in 91-74 loss

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CORBIS OUTPETER FOLEY/EPA

The Raptors swarm Bogdan Bodgdanovic underneath the basket as the Nets struggle in an ugly 91-74 loss.

Don’t look too closely at the box score, but this was, in fact, a professional basketball game.

The Nets scored 74 points. The winning Raptors shot 18 percent from three. It took nearly 29 minutes for a Net to go to the free throw line. Brooklyn seems to be slugging through some alternate universe where James Johnson outscores Joe Johnson and Donald Sloan ties for the game lead in assists – with four.

Brook Lopez was the sole offensive force for the Nets in a dismal 91-74 loss to Toronto. After going just 5-of-13 from the field in the first half, he ended the game with 24 points, but the rest of the team paled in comparison.

It was perhaps fitting, then, that the sole highlight of a tremendously ugly game was a behind the back circus shot by Lopez that somehow bounced in. Of course, he missed the free throw.

If that’s how things are going to be for Brooklyn from here on out, they can at the very least hold out hope that Shane Larkin will start to grow into a point guard. What will likely be an arduous development process is only in its early stages. But Nets head coach Lionel Hollins noted before the game that he watched Jarrett Jack adjust his role from being a scoring-first bench player last season to running the offense this year. Larkin has the opportunity to do the same.

Brook Lopez leads the Nets in scoring with 24 points on Wednesday night.Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE/Getty Images

Brook Lopez leads the Nets in scoring with 24 points on Wednesday night.

“The person that had to change the most for us was Jarrett,” Hollins said ahead of Tuesday night’s game. “As a starter he made adjustments. The guy was averaging 7.3 assists per game before he got hurt, so obviously he made an adjustment.”

Early in the first, it looked like Larkin had made some of the changes his coach referred to. The point guard was aggressive from the tip, taking advantage of the Raptors leaving him wide open at the top of the key by nailing a three on Brooklyn’s first possession.

But after forcing a turnover and scoring on the other end, Larkin was pulled with 1:31 left in the opening quarter. When he came back almost 10 minutes later, the early aggression was a distant memory. He turned the ball over immediately and was no match for Kyle Lowry, Demar DeRozan and Cory Joseph on defense.

Though Jonas Valanciunas led the Toronto charge with 22 points, the trio of guards all scored in double figures and combined for 42.

CORBIS OUTPETER FOLEY/EPA

DeMar DeRozan takes a shot over Nets’ Willie Reed.

Toronto’s defense is Top-5 in the NBA, but it has struggled of late, and head coach Dwane Casey admitted before the game that the loss of Demarre Carroll could potentially hurt further.

“Does it set us back? Yes. That’s what we brought him in for,” Toronto head coach Dwane Casey said. “It’s tough, but everybody goes through injuries. We have other guys on the roster that need to step up.”

It didn’t look like the Raptors were lacking much on the defensive end, but maybe it was just the Nets giving them all the help they needed. Brooklyn shot 39 percent from the field, didn’t go to the free throw line until the third quarter and put up a measly 36 points on the scoreboard in the entire first half. On Monday against the Celtics, they allowed 37 points in the first quarter alone.

The numbers just aren’t adding up for the Nets, and after eight straight losses at home, it shows.

Tags:
brooklyn nets ,
nba ,
toronto raptors ,
brook lopez ,
jonas valanciunas

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