Whereas the Nets got here out swinging towards the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday, they misplaced management of the sport within the second quarter and had been in the end blown out 132-100 at Barclays Heart.
Brooklyn suffered its sixth straight loss and fell to 23-51 with eight video games left. Its now a half recreation forward of the Philadelphia 76ers for the fifth-best NBA Draft lottery odds.
Day’Ron Sharpe (proper knee sprain) and Noah Clowney (sickness) had been dominated out for Brooklyn, whereas the Clippers — led by Kawhi Leonard, Norman Powell and former Web James Harden — had been principally wholesome.
The Nets performed a robust opening body after a wire-to-wire annihilation by the hands of the Toronto Raptors at residence on Wednesday. They loved a balanced offensive effort early, paced by six early factors from Ziaire Williams, and restricted the Clippers to 38.1% taking pictures by means of one quarter of motion.
Nevertheless, it was all Clippers within the second quarter. After a Keon Johnson layup lower Brooklyn’s deficit to 1 with 5:47 left, the Clippers ended the half on a monstrous 25-6 run that put them up 68-48 on the break.
The Clippers shot 75% as a crew in a second quarter the place Leonard went 6-for-7 from the sphere and scored 19 factors. The six-time All-Star scored 25 factors and made three 3-pointers in his first 18 minutes on the court docket. One other Leonard trey lower than a minute into the third quarter pushed the Clippers’ result in 25 factors. From there, the guests led by as many as 41 factors.
The Clippers shot 55% for the sport, made 19 3s, and scored 24 factors off 15 Brooklyn turnovers.
Friday’s matchup noticed the NBA debut of Drew Timme and Ben Simmons’ return to Barclays Heart. Timme checked in for Brooklyn with 3:57 left within the first quarter and Simmons joined him on the court docket on the subsequent lifeless ball, greeted by a mixture of boos and cheers.
Satirically, they spent most of their minutes collectively on the court docket guarding one another. Timme, who scored his first NBA basket lower than a minute into the second quarter — a layup over two defenders off a candy dish from D’Angelo Russell — completed with 11 factors and 10 rebounds in 25 minutes. Simmons had three rebounds and three assists in 17 minutes.
Keon Johnson scored a team-high 13 factors for the Nets. Leonard led the Clippers with 31 factors on 10-for-14 taking pictures. Nets two-way guard Tyson Etienne scored his first profession buckets early within the fourth quarter and fellow two-way Tosan Evbuomwan performed for the primary time in over a month.
Brooklyn will return to motion on Saturday towards the Washington Wizards at Capital One Area.
Initially Revealed: March 28, 2025 at 10:08 PM EDT
