AUSTIN, Texas — The Nets blew a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter and another edge in overtime against the second-worst team in basketball.
So what does that make the Nets?
The Nets collapsed in a 120-115 overtime defeat before a crowd of 16,057 at Moody Center on Sunday, including Nets team owner Joe Tsai.
Brooklyn (26-42) has lost five of six on this disastrous road trip that was not just their longest of the season — but the most damaging.
Victor Wembanyama had 33 points, 15 rebounds, seven assists and seven blocks for San Antonio. The Spurs are just 15-53, worst in the Western Conference — but the best team on the court Sunday night.
After a back-and-forth regulation, Mikal Bridges opened the scoring in overtime with a 3-pointer. But after the teams traded buckets, a layup by Wembanyama layup cut the Nets’ lead to 115-114 with 2:27 left in overtime.
In keeping with this sloppy contrast, nobody scored again until Wembanyana’s alley-oop dunk put San Antonio ahead with 38.2 seconds on the clock in OT.
Dennis Schroder thought he had put the Nets back in front just 13 seconds later, getting downhill and drawing a goaltending violation on Wembanyama.
But the call was overturned by review, leaving Brooklyn down by a point.
A Keldon Johnson driving layup gave the Spurs a 118-115 lead with 20 seconds to go. Cam Johnson’s missed 3-point attempt with 11 seconds remaining made the rest academic.
This one will stick in the Nets’ collective craw, after having led 103-93 with 5:44 in regulation before letting the Spurs close regulation on a 17-7 run, and being ahead going into the final minute of overtime.
Cam Thomas had 31 points and five assists for the Nets — his career-best fifth straight game over 20 points. But it wasn’t enough. Not the way this team folds at every endgame.
“Yeah, just stronger longer. I just believe in that,” interim coach Kevin Ollie said beforehand. “We’ve just got to be stronger in our mindset in what we need to do, how we prepare, how we take on challenges, how we counterpunch; and we got to just do it for longer stretches.”
Wembanyama turned midrange jumpers into finger rolls, made a nine-foot layup over Johnson without ever bothering to leave his feet.
All that jumping is for ordinary folk, and he’s clearly extraordinary.
A Johnson driving layup pushed the Nets’ lead to 29-18 with 2:34 left in the first quarter. But it wasn’t a lead Brooklyn could hold. The Nets immediately allowed a 9-0 Spurs run spanning the first and second quarters to see their lead slashed to just two. It disappeared altogether eventually, the contest turning into a nail-biter.
There were a dozen lead changes and 11 ties in regulation alone.
The Nets were clinging to a tenuous 89-86 edge when Wembanyama sat down for a rest with 9:29 in regulation.
It was still 96-93 when the Nets scored the next seven straight. Dennis Schroder stole Zach Collins’ pass and fed Day’Ron Sharpe for a dunk and a 103-93 cushion. It was the Nets’ biggest lead since the opening period — but they couldn’t protect it.
Despite leading by ten with 5:44 in regulation, the Nets allowed a 17-4 run, aided by Sharpe getting an ill-advised flagrant foul one for tackling Jeremy Sochan. Then Wembanyama hit back-to-back baskets — a tip-in and then a dunk — to tie it at 107-all.
San Antonio’s Johnson broke the deadlock with a jab step right-corner 3-pointer, leaving the Nets down 110-107 with 1:04 in regulation. But Schroder tied it with 16.1 seconds remaining, and Claxton’s defense forced a miss from Wembanyama to preserve the tie and force overtime.
That’s where the Nets suffered a heartbreaker.
