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Where Brooklyn At? Nets momentum snapped with blowout loss in D.C.

By Anthony Puccio
NBA: Brooklyn Nets at Washington Wizards Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports

So much for the trifecta.

The Nets came into Friday’s game playing their best basketball all year, but you wouldn’t have known by watching this one. It was a blowout from the second quarter until the very end. Final score: 129-108.

The Wizards (44-28) are the third seed in the East, while the Nets (15-57) failed to win three straight games. They are now 6-8 in March and 5-30 overall on the road.

The story of the game was the ugly first half. After the Nets jumped out to a solid 13-4 start, John Wall and the Wizards woke up and turned things around. From that point on, they went on a 27-9 run and finished the first quarter on a 15-3 run. A nine-point Brooklyn lead suddenly turned into a nine-point deficit.

And it only got worse.

The Nets were ice cold and began rushing their shots instead of taking their time and getting into their offensive sets. It was a whole lot of isolation and contested 3-pointers. I thought we were done with that style of play.

Thursday night against Phoenix, their stellar defense led to plenty of offense. That wasn’t the case. The Wizards shot 51.1 percent from the field and assisted on 12 of its 23 field goals. That was the theme of the day.

Ten different Washington players had a field goal by the end of the first half. And so, after leading by 33 at one point last night, the Nets fell down by as many as 28. It was a 32-20 second quarter advantage for the home team.

The Nets trailed, 63-42, at half.

Brooklyn came out with a little more energy in the second half and scored 39 points in the third quarter, but they failed to cut the deficit down to less than 14 points.

Attribute it to fatigue, playing against a better team and/or just simply poor basketball on both sides of the ball. Regardless, this game was very uncharacteristic of the hard-working Nets of late.

***

Justin Hamilton came off the bench and had a big game with 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting, while KJ McDaniels and Isaiah Whitehead chipped in 10 apiece off the bench as well. It was another quietly good game for Rondae Hollis-Jefferson who finished with 19 points and seven rebounds in 22 minutes. The Nets shot 52 percent overall but a horrid 3-of-15 shooting from deep.

For Washington, John Wall led with 22 points and nine assists followed up by Brandon Jennings (18 points and nine assists). They Wizards shot 50.5 percent from the field and 10-of-26 from deep, assisting on 29 of 49 made field goals. They also knocked down 21-of-22 free throws.

HELLO, OLD FRIEND

The Nets faced off against Bojan Bogdanovic for the first time since trading him on February 22. Bogdanovic is averaging 14.6 points on 42 percent 3-point shooting since the trade. He finished with 17 points and seven rebounds in 26 minutes.

Next up: Nets at Hawks at 1pm, Sunday.

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