Nets try to end 16-game home losing streak (Mar 12, 2017)
NEW YORK -- The Brooklyn Nets stopped one lengthy losing streak while traveling 8,066 miles and taking nine flights. Now they will return home and attempt to halt another lengthy skid.
With the ACC tournament and the circus cleared out of Barclays Center, Brooklyn attempts to stop a 16-game home losing streak Sunday night when it faces the New York Knicks, who are attempting to keep faint playoff hopes alive.
The Nets won twice on their eight-game road trip, and if they went winless they would have entered their first home game since Feb. 15 on a 22-game losing streak. Instead, the Nets attempt to stop the third-worst home losing streak in NBA history after victories in Sacramento on March 1 and Memphis on Monday.
Brooklyn averaged 106.1 points per game on its trip, which included losses at Denver, Golden State, Portland, Utah, Atlanta and Dallas. The Nets shot 46.3 percent from the field, made 34.9 percent of their 3-pointers but also averaged 16.8 turnovers.
Defensively, the Nets gave up 113.4 points, allowed 46.7 percent shooting from the floor and 43.2 percent from 3-point range.
The best news for the Nets was Jeremy Lin returned from a lengthy absence because of a second left hamstring injury and played well in each game. Lin averaged 13.8 points and 3.5 assists while shooting 46.7 percent from the floor in 20.3 minutes per game.
"I'm happy that we come and show up to anywhere, on the road, at home, whatever," Lin said. "I really think we have the expectation that we are going to win or that we are going to be in the game.
"There is no replacement for that. You have to expect big things from yourself, you have to believe in yourself. I feel like this team is starting to figure it out."
The Nets have been unable to figure it out at home since Randy Foye's buzzer-beating 3-pointer beat the Charlotte Hornets on Dec. 26. Coincidentally, it was the same game that Lin reinjured the hamstring after missing more than a month with his first injury.
Lin scored 18 points in Friday's 105-96 loss at Dallas. Isaiah Whitehead scored a career-high 24 points and Quincy Acy added 12 filling in for Brook Lopez.
"I thought our guys came out with a ton of energy," Nets coach Kenny Atkinson said. "They really competed. We were in the game. It's a five-point game in the fourth quarter. We're right there on the road, so I'm proud of them."
Lopez (sprained right ankle) missed his first game because of injury since Dec. 21, 2014. He leads the Nets with 20.3 points per game and averaged 17 on the road trip.
He is listed as probable, but the injury is not considered serious.
"I'm looking forward to having him back soon," Brooklyn coach Kenny Atkinson said. "I don't think it's a big deal."
An even bigger deal would be seeing the skid reach 17 games. It would mark the third home losing streak of at least 17 games in league history, trailing only the Philadelphia 76ers, who lost 18 straight from Jan. 17 to March 21, 2014, and the Dallas Mavericks, who dropped 19 straight from Nov. 6, 1993 to Jan. 1, 1994.
Brooklyn has been close on numerous occasions during the longest home skid in team history. Before heading on its trek, the Nets were handed a 129-125 loss by the Milwaukee Bucks and also led in several games.
One of those was a 95-90 loss to the Knicks on Feb. 1. The Knicks trailed by 10 early in the third quarter but stormed back when Kristaps Porzingis scored 12 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter.
Carmelo Anthony did not play in the fourth quarter in the last meeting when he was 6 of 22 from the floor.
The last meeting is one of the few wins by the Knicks in the last three months. After getting off to a respectable 14-10 start, New York is 13-31 and falling farther behind in the playoff race.
New York is 3-5 since the All-Star break after committing 18 turnovers during a 112-92 loss at Detroit on Saturday afternoon. While the Knicks have struggled defensively most of this season, offense has cost them recently as they make more attempts to run more plays of team president Phil Jackson's triangle offense.
"The problem is we were shooting a lot of jump shots," New York coach Jeff Hornacek said. "We weren't able to get to the basket and they had 50 points in the paint and (43) attempts at it."
Anthony failed to reach 20 points for the fifth consecutive game. He only attempted nine shots in 36 minutes. He has taken fewer than 10 shots on three other occasions, but played 24 or fewer minutes those games.
In those games, Anthony is averaging 15.8 points and shooting 32 percent from the field (25 of 78) while doing his best to avoid using the word "triangle" in interviews.
"It's just hard for me to be talking about that in March, in the middle of March, to still be talking about our system and what we're running instead of just playing basketball," Anthony told reporters.
