Brook Lopez was brilliant in Monday’s heavyweight bout against Detroit’s Andre Drummond, staking the Nets to a late lead. But when they needed clutch plays the most, they couldn’t get him the ball and couldn’t buy a basket.
No wonder they couldn’t get the win.
Brooklyn took ill-conceived shots and made mistakes down the stretch, turning a late lead into a 105-100 loss.
Lopez had a game-high 27 points, the last few coming on a dunk and conventional three-point play for a 98-95 lead with 2:24 remaining. But the Nets saw Detroit close the game with a 10-2 run to steal the victory.
Brooklyn (12-37) couldn’t buy a stop in that span, letting the Pistons hit all four of their shots down the stretch. Reggie Jackson had seven of his 19 points in that decisive run, including a runner Lopez got a piece of but still went in.
“It’s tough. I kind of wanted to ask for half a point or something. But, man, that’s just the way it goes,’’ said Lopez, summing up the story of the Nets’ season. And despite him averaging 26.4 points over his past five games, when Drummond started fronting him late, the Nets didn’t go to him.
“Down the stretch the last two minutes of the game they started fronting him, and not making his catch easy,’’ Joe Johnson said. “So it was tough.’’
Jackson tied it with a 3-pointer, and Donald Sloan stepped out of bounds, turning the ball over. Drummond (21 points, 18 rebounds) dunked to put Detroit back on top 100-98, and after Wayne Ellington missed a jumper, Jackson’s jumper made it a four-point game with 51 seconds remaining.
Reserve Shane Larkin (eight points, career-high 14 assists) blew by his man for a baseline layup, but Jackson’s tough basket in traffic pushed it back to 104-100 with 14.9 seconds on the clock. And after Ellington hesitated and let Drummond block his late 3-pointer, the game essentially was over. Marcus Morris sealed it at the line.
“Yeah, Drummond got it. He’s long,” Ellington said. “I didn’t even think he was going to contest it, I was so far away. But he stayed with me and made a good play.”
“It was open. We had something to get him open, and he hesitated,” interim coach Tony Brown said. “I would’ve shot it. If it was me, I would’ve shot it. That’s what the play was designed for, to try and get a look at a 3, but he hesitated and gave Drummond a chance to get there.”