If the regular season ended today, the Brooklyn Nets would not only be out of the playoffs, but out of the play-in game all together.
That's how far this team has fallen after a promising 13-10 start to the season, rife with surprise performances and team-centric basketball. Since that point, Brooklyn is 3-14 with bad loss after bad loss piling up, none worse than Wednesday night's near buzzer beater by Anfernee Simons in Portland. Jeremi Grant led the way for the Trailblazers with 30, while Mikal Bridges was the lone Net to top the 20-point plateau with 21.
The Nets led 83-74 entering the fourth quarter before the Blazers went on a late-game run to take the lead. Cam Johnson tied the game inside of five seconds remaining, but Simons floater over Nic Claxton with just .02 seconds remaining proved to be the game-winner.
Brooklyn has now last back-to-back games it should have won due to offensive and defensive breakdowns in clutch moments.
Jacque Vaughn relegating Cam Thomas to the bench over the last ten games has produced a 1-9 record over that span. Spencer Dinwiddie bounced back with 19 points and seven assists in Portland following a tough outing against Miami on Monday.
Even Dinwiddie, a veteran leader for the squad, has looked disinterested at times, sitting on the bench during clutch times, possibly contemplating his future with the squad.
The Nets are now sinking down the NBA standings and without a first round pick to call their own (Cleveland owns it) they don't benefit by selling off assets and becoming a lottery team.
General manager Sean Marks will now be tasked with picking up the pieces and trying to salvage what has become a lost season for Brooklyn. There are some big superstar names rumored to be available at the deadline, but the Nets front office will need to evaluate age, contract status and fit on the club in order to turn around what has been a disastrous last 3-weeks in Nets World.
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