Brooklyn Nets helpless as Detroit Pistons run away in second half, losing 113-98

The Brooklyn Nets are trying again.

But when the Detroit Pistons — who at this point last year ended a losing streak of epic proportions — hit four straight triples to extend their lead from 43-41 to 55-41 just before the end of the first half, it illustrated. the insurmountable mountain Brooklyn climbs on nights like Wednesday.

Among the rotation regulars were Jordi Fernández without Ben Simmons, D’Angelo Russell, Cams Johnson and Thomas, Day’Ron Sharpe and Trendon Watford. Due to completion, Dariq Whitehead, Bojan Bogdanović, Maxwell Lewis and De’Anthony Melton were also unavailable.

With eight players available, Brooklyn had the least amount of resources at their disposal, avoiding an automatic forfeit of a healthy body.

They fought though. Nic Claxton responded to his 2-of-10 shooting night on Monday with a strong first half, ultimately posting 14/6/3/1/3 on 6-of-11 shooting. Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart threw their weight around with reckless abandon, but the Nets didn’t get punked.

Although Stewart was particularly reckless, he elbowed Noah Clowney in the neck to start the proceedings…

The 20-year-old Clowney did not wilt, but responded to the unusual adversity.

He was the highlight of the night for Brooklyn, an admittedly low bar to clear, but one he blew past with a career-high 27 points, six boards, three assists and two steals.

Only 11 of his 19 attempts came from deep, a significant step down for a player who has taken about two-thirds of his shots from long range this season, but Clowney needed that on Wednesday. He drove past some closeouts, ran the floor in transition and even popped to the basket on occasion as Brooklyn’s only other available big man, besides Clax…

After the game, Clowney gave one of the most insightful answers of his career so far about his offensive game: “What I like to call it is I like to keep teams honest. I don’t like where teams have the ability to fall off me because I’m a weak shooter. I feel like it hurts my team in general. So if I’m able to shoot the ball and I can keep somebody honest, to keep my guys off the floor get in the lane, so have it always been the goal. So after ‘Bama – I think I shot 29% (from three) at Alabama, but I knew I could shoot. I think other people knew I could shoot took a chance. Here we are.”

He also explained what a night like Wednesday does for his confidence: “Any time you have a good performance, it’s good for your confidence. Obviously you know what you can do, but when you do it at the highest level, in the real games where it matters, you translate it.”

But the Detroit Pistons have a different type of swag going on. They were looking to win their fifth straight game Wednesday, something they haven’t done in Cade Cunningham’s career.

So when Malik Beasley, Marcus Sasser and Simone Fontecchio started to make themselves felt from deep, it was a double dagger into Brooklyn’s soul. Not only did it put the game nearly out of reach, but it was a reminder of what the Nets can’t do with their available roster.

They can’t generate open looks, or drop to a dozen points a minute, or get hot enough to bury a team. Getting to 100 points with the starting backcourt of Tyrese Martin and Keon Johnson is a challenge enough, much less going down with a double-digit deficit.

What they can do is play respectable ball, which they did for most of the third quarter, just like Monday night. Midway through the frame, they cut Detroit’s lead in half to six, thanks to another Clowney layup. But the Pistons responded with a haymaker, hitting threes and forcing turnovers to build a 21-point lead as the fourth quarter tipped off.

JB Bickerstaff’s team had a plan and a roster that has been together all season. They have well-deserved confidence and far more offensive talent. Such is life. Despite the teams committing an identical number of turnovers (15), Detroit outscored Brooklyn by a whopping 38-13 margin at halftime.

“We had turnovers in transition and it turns into layups the other way,” the Brooklyn head coach said. “We didn’t play on two feet. What I mean by that is our shots at the rim were blocked and it’s like live turnovers, it just goes the other way … the one lesson is, you know, put the ball on the rim as high as you can and maybe we’ll rebound it or we’ll give ourselves a chance to come back.”

Brooklyn made some tough decisions in the paint, but the better team just dominated in the middle parts of the game. Nets fans looking for silver linings found them in shining moments from Clowney, Claxton and once again Tosan Evbuomwan…

Jordi Fernández found the silver in the overall fight shown by his team.

While he called the game a “learning process” and wasn’t shy about highlighting areas of improvement, the rookie head coach also called the loss a “good experience again. And so the most important thing for me is to fight until the end, to win the fourth quarter. And that’s how we can see it, learn it and move on.”

Not that Brooklyn has many other options at the moment.

Final score: Detroit Pistons 113, Brooklyn Nets 98

Milestone Watch

• Noah Clowney’s 29 points were season and career highs, but he also made another bit of history, becoming the youngest player in franchise history to record 25+ points, 5+ rebounds and 5+ 3-pointers made in a game.
• Tyrese Martin pitched 12/10/4 and the career-high ten boards were good for his first career double-double. Four assists also tied a career high for the ex-UConn Husky.
• Nic Claxton blocked three shots last night, moving him past Chris Morris for sixth in Nets NBA history. Next up: Derrick Coleman (559).

Damage report

Ben Simmons was originally a question mark for this game, later downgraded to unavailable. It was his fourth absence in a row, although the first in the series was due to a back-to-back.

The last three have been related to leg tenderness, which has now transitioned to the dreaded “back injury management.” Everything in the body is connected to the back.

Prelude to Fernández said: “Right now this discomfort, whatever he’s going through with a calf related to dealing with his back, we just have to be careful and continue to work.”

Poor Day’Ron Sharpe had a season-best game on Monday, then got hit with an illness and became a late scratch against Detroit. Brooklyn was one of the last teams in the NBA to avoid an illness-related absence this season, but the virus seemingly making its way around the league finally caught up with them Wednesday.

There aren’t many other updates on the rest of the injured Nets, although Jordi Fernández said that while the Nets “believe” Cam Johnson will play out west, they won’t rush anything.

However, Dariq Whitehead has a strange case of concussions. After getting beat up in Long Island’s last game, it looked like he suffered a lower leg injury, but no! It was the dreaded c-word…

To be clear, Whitehead is simply in concussion protocol at the moment, though it seems possible he played a large portion of a G League contest after suffering a concussion, troubling for any player, much less a , who has mentally and physically struggled with a pile-up of injuries in his young career.

Anyway, there’s no update on his long-term status yet, or if he’s suffered a concussion.

Next up

Photo by AARon Ontiveroz/The Denver Post

So it begins. Brooklyn flies west for the first of six consecutive games on the road, starting with a Friday night with the Denver Nuggets. Tip-off is scheduled for 9:00 PM ET.