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The Nets have fallen out of first place and into their first slump of the season.
The way the Nets blew their last game was sticking in their collective craw. And Kevin Durant said it’s supposed to sting — and supposed to teach the now second-place Nets some hard-earned lessons going forward.
“I mean, hopefully a loss like this will sit in your brain until tomorrow, you know what I’m saying?” Durant asked rhetorically. “Go out there and … do your job as an individual. You can be the best at that job, and now you can bring it to the collective. It’s always about the collective. So if you ain’t feeling like s–t after this game, you got to look yourself in the mirror.”
They won’t like what they saw staring back after a 120-116 loss to the shorthanded Clippers on New Year’s Day.
The Nets flushed huge nights from Durant and James Harden by refusing to play defense. They did it by having a big lead (13 with 5:57 left) but an even bigger attitude problem.
“We’re going to continue to get our ass kicked if we don’t approach the game the proper way,” Durant said. “It’s about the group. It’s about how we’re going to come out here and be the best that we can each possession.”
The end result was Brooklyn’s first losing slump of this season, having fallen to Philadelphia two days earlier. The Nets (23-11) also fell out of first place in the Eastern Conference, now a full game behind Chicago and tied with Milwaukee, winners of six straight.
And from Durant to the rest of his teammates to coach Steve Nash, they said the problem wasn’t so much talent or scheme, but a needed attitude adjustment.
And they’ll need it before they host Memphis on Monday (7:30 p.m., NBA TV), doing it with center LaMarcus Aldridge suddenly in question.
“It just wasn’t the requisite energy, and fight wasn’t there on enough possessions. You could really see it throughout the game,” Nash said. “But to give up 71 in the second half is way outside of what we’ve done this year. Something we’re going to have to take to heart and rebuild.”
For better or worse, that’s something the Nets have managed to do after every single setback this season. Their best stretches have followed galling defeats.
The Nets bounced back from a 106-93 home loss to Miami by ripping off five in a row. And a Nov. 8 loss in Chicago — leading through three quarters, only to get outscored 42-17 in the fourth — was followed by a three-game winning streak.
After getting humbled 117-99 at home by Golden State, the Nets reeled off four straight. And finally they rebounded from a Dec. 8 defeat in Houston with another four-game winning streak.
And while the Grizzlies (23-14) may not have the pedigree of the Warriors or Heat, they have more than enough explosive talent to run the Nets’ losing skid to three straight regardless of Aldridge’s sore right foot.
Brooklyn has dropped four straight against Memphis, their longest active skid against any team. And the Grizzlies are atop the Southwest Division and riding a four-game winning streak that includes a victory over the white-hot Suns.
Point guard Ja Morant comes in averaging 24.7 points, 6.6 assists and 5.7 rebounds, fresh off a 30-point, eight-dime, six-board game against San Antonio. Watching him go against Harden should be worth the price of admission to Barclays Center.
But it’ll be an ugly show if the Nets start off the same way they ended Saturday, allowing 40 points on 52.2 percent shooting in the fourth quarter.
“Obviously I tell them that that can’t be us,” Nash said, “and that can’t be the level that we’re going to accept and that we have to decide what’s acceptable for us and what’s not.”
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