Two games without Jarrett Jack, one uglier than the next.
Brook Lopez said Wednesday night’s performance might have been the Nets’ most disappointing offensive performance of the season, while coach Lionel Hollins called it overall domination, and both may have been too kind.
The Nets couldn’t run their offense, couldn’t hold on to the ball, couldn’t buy a basket. And when it was over, they suffered a 91-74 loss to Toronto — their eighth consecutive defeat at home — that was so ugly it begged the question: is this fixable?
“It was,’’ Hollins said, “just overall domination.’’
In two games since Jack tore his ACL last weekend in Boston, Brooklyn (10-25) has been terrible on offense.
The Nets were held to a season-low 74 points, shot just 39.7 percent, committed 19 turnovers to hand Toronto 17 points, and looked like a team in desperate need of a lead guard.
“There’s a lot of stuff we have to tweak. We had a lot of turnovers. Right now we’re just out of sync as far as running our stuff and executing,’’ said Thaddeus Young, held to 11 points on 5-of-13 shooting. “With Jarrett going down, that’s definitely tough for us because that’s our starting point guard. … They tried to get into us, run us out of our sets, and did a pretty good job.
“Just practice, try to jam it into guys’ heads this is what we need to do, this is the stuff we need to run, this is who we need to get the ball to and this is the way we should execute. … Right now it’s tough when your No. 1 guy goes down that’s making everything happen for the team, and you have to get guys to step in and fill in. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t right off the bat.’’
Those guys would be newly minted starter Shane Larkin and little-used Donald Sloan, now playing significant minutes. Larkin had nine points and four assists, while Sloan finished with two points and four assists. Neither acquitted themselves well or ran the offense smoothly.
“I’ve just got to make sure everybody’s in the right spots whenever we’re in a set, make sure my team executes,’’ Larkin said. “That’s the biggest thing as a point guard, and I’ve got to do a better job of that.”
It’s what Kyle Lowry did for Toronto, with 17 points, eight boards, six assists and a five steals to wreck Brooklyn’s offense. Lopez had 24 points and 13 rebounds, but no other Net had more than a dozen points. Joe Johnson went back into his slump with five points on 2-of-7 shooting.
The Nets’ season-low point total had been 75 points in an Oct. 30 loss at San Antonio, their worst showing at home was the 82 they scored in a Dec. 14 loss to Orlando.
Brooklyn opened the second quarter on a 17-5 run to take a 34-29 lead, but saw Toronto close the half on a 16-2 spurt to take a 45-36 edge into the locker room.
Tough defense helped the Nets claw within 49-47 on two Lopez free throws, but the fact those were Brooklyn’s first with just 7:02 left in the third quarter showed the home team’s inability to break down Toronto’s defense. The Nets never got over the hump, coughing up six straight Raptor points to trail 55-47, and Toronto closed the third quarter on an 11-2 run to make it 70-56 going into the fourth.
It grew to 18 and Brooklyn was never competitive after that.