After losing back-to-back games, Nets coach Lionel Hollins shook up his starting lineup against the Jazz on Sunday night, inserting Brook Lopez and Thaddeus Young at the expense of Mason Plumlee.
While that wasn’t enough for the Nets to avoid suffering a third straight loss, Lopez and Young both produced in Brooklyn’s 95-88 loss to Utah.
Lopez finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds while sending Plumlee to the bench for the first time since December. Young had 19 points, three rebounds, two assists and four steals in his first start since being acquired by the Nets from the Timberwolves for Kevin Garnett last month.
“We’ve been practicing, we’ve been going through all the different plays, doing all different things,” Young said. “It’s not hard for me to play with these guys.
“You know, these guys are great guys. They know how to play basketball, and they make me better as a player.”
Going bigger didn’t do much to help against Utah’s imposing frontline of former Net Derrick Favors and center Rudy Gobert, however, as the Jazz outrebounded the Nets 43-30, including grabbing 12 offensive rebounds, which led to 15 second-chance points.
“They executed and made plays when they had to,” Hollins said.
With Tim Duncan failing to make a field goal for the first time in his career in Sunday’s win for the Spurs over the Bulls, Joe Johnson became the player with the longest streak of games making at least one field goal.
Johnson finished 4-for-10 Sunday, pushing his streak to 862 consecutive games with at least one made basket.