SALT LAKE CITY — The Nets flushed a comeback at the end of regulation with a blown defensive coverage at the end of overtime.
When it was over, Brooklyn suffered a 112-111 loss to Utah before a sellout crowd of 18,175 at the Delta Center on Sunday.
And they don’t want to hear a thing about pingpong balls, or lottery seeding. Not after this one.
“I know this is kind of like a rebuild situation, but we’ve got to go in there like we want to win regardless of what the front office is expecting,” Ben Simmons said.
“No moral victories. I’m pissed off. We should have won but we just gotta keep chopping,” added Nic Claxton. “We’ve been losing a lot, and everybody’s tired of losing. They sat out all their players and we still lost.”
It was Claxton that was right in the middle of the pivotal endgame. He had 14 points and 12 rebounds on a solid night, but — with the Nets up 111-110 with a foul to give, and having discussed it in the timeout with 6.4 seconds left in overtime — failed to impede Isaiah Collier as he drove for an all-too-easy go-ahead layup.
“I should’ve fouled him,” Claxton said. “[Jordi Fernandez] told us in the timeout. So I should have fouled. It’s really that simple. So they would have to either run a different play. So I should have fouled.”
The drive by Collier (23 points, seven ᴀssists and seven boards) proved to be the game winner.
