Incompetence against the East continued for the Nets, as did their misery against the Magic.
The Nets suffered a 100-92 loss to Orlando on Sunday afternoon before a crowd of 16,505 at Barclays Center.
The defeat dropped them to 9-12. It also marked their fifth straight loss to the Magic and saw them fall to 3-11 against the Eastern Conference, which is not exactly packed with powerhouses other than Boston and Cleveland.
Granted, the Nets were shorthanded, playing without leading scorer Cam Thomas (hamstring), plus-minus leader Dorian Finney-Smith (ankle) and key frontcourt reserves Noah Clowney and Day’Ron Sharpe. That showed up on the boards.
The Nets were hammered, 52-33, on the glᴀss and outscored, 53-38, in the paint.
Cam Johnson scored a team-high 25 points, and Dennis Schroder added 20 and seven ᴀssists in his return from personal leave. It wasn’t enough to overcome their deficiencies in the paint and on the boards.
Ben Simmons also left with a knee contusion and did not return.
Franz Wagner had 20 points, nine rebounds and eight ᴀssists to lead Orlando (15-7).
The game was knotted at 83-all before a 3-pointer from Kentavious Caldwell-Pope broke the ᴅᴇᴀᴅlock for good.
Schroder fed Johnson for a fast-break dunk to cut the deficit to one. But the Nets surrendered six unanswered points and never challenged again.
A Wendell Carter dunk made it 88-85 Orlando with 5:13 remaining. Then Schroder was whistled for a charge on Wagner, and Carter (14 points, seven rebounds) made a pair of free throws with 4:33 to play.
After Nic Claxton had a bad pᴀss stolen by Caldwell-Pope, the Magic wing scored a layup the other way. The Nets trailed, 92-85, with 4:09 left in regulation.
Claxton eventually was ejected for a Flagrant 2 with 18.1 seconds left.
The Nets largely held Wagner in check. The German forward was a horrid 4 of 17 from the floor and 0 of 6 from behind the arc.
The Nets were outscored by 38 points in their earlier two meetings with the Magic, a 116-101 loss on Oct. 25 in Orlando and 123-100 loss Friday in Brooklyn. Wagner scored 29 in each game.
“Obviously, our focus has to be better throughout the whole game. We were fighting and competing three minutes to go in the second. They went on a 13-0 run and that was the first separation they created,” head coach Jordi Fernandez said. “And then out of the locker room at halftime, they punched again, and we couldn’t respond.
“We turned it over a lot, 20 times overall for 34 points. So those are the little things we have to do better. And how we do it, right? So, we couldn’t contain them. We couldn’t protect our paint. We couldn’t defend the 3-point line. So, all those things that we know and we’ve watched and we’re willing to do better in this third time that we play them.”
Unlike those contests, this one had plenty of ebbs and flows, and it was close throughout.
After Schroder’s free throw put the Nets up, 53-52, with 10:41 left in the third, they allowed a 12-2 run.
