Tuesday’s home loss to the Celtics was the latest example of Brooklyn’s struggles to finish games. The Nets matched Boston’s intensity for most of the night, trimming an 11-point third-quarter deficit to four entering the fourth. But they unraveled late, shooting just 26.7 percent in the final period with seven turnovers, and were outscored by 10 the rest of the way.
“I think the fourth-quarter execution and a lot of the things we did well throughout the game, we didn’t do it in the fourth,” head coach Jordi Fernández said. “A lot of times, it’s just hard in this league to have that level of intensity and focus. So, I believe we can keep doing those things and obviously playing against a team like [the Celtics] that has players who have been there with experience, with that talent level, all that is very good for us.”
That theme has followed the Nets all season. They’re being outscored by nearly a point per game in the final period, ranking 23rd in fourth-quarter margin and are shooting just 40.7% from the field and 32.5% from 3-point range in those minutes. The lapses have shown up in key moments, too, whether it was getting outscored 34–21 by Minnesota, surrendering an 11–0 closing run in Orlando or allowing an 8-0 run to Boston right after Brooklyn briefly took the lead Tuesday night.
“We play so hard to put ourselves in a position where we can win games, but we don’t quite know how to finish games,” Noah Clowney said. “And you’ll see against a lot of older teams that come together, they kind of know what they want to get to late in games, whereas we’re kind of just like almost timid, we don’t know what we want to do.”
The issues aren’t limited to the closing minutes. Third quarters have tripped the Nets up all year. They’re averaging just 26.9 points in the period, 28th in the league, while getting outscored by 2.4 points on average. They’re shooting 42.8% from the field and 33.8% from deep in that frame, numbers that show how often the offense stalls coming out of halftime while opponents grab control.
“We’re just not good at executing it, yet,” Clowney continued. “Also, I think in the second half, that third quarter, we have to find somebody to hit. I think we had 22 fast break points in the first half and like two in the second. So, we have to get more in transition.”
For a roster this young, those swings are part of the process. The Nets can overwhelm teams for stretches, then run into trouble once the game slows down and every possession gets heavier. They’ve proven they can go toe-to-toe with veteran groups, but they’re not closing like one yet. Learning how to handle those moments, when pace fades, scouting takes over and every mistake gets magnified, is the next step in their growth.
“We have a young team and we’re newly playing together, and I think [the Celtics] have been in so many situations in the fourth quarter as a group that they kind of knew how to execute down the stretch and we’re still figuring that out,” Michael Porter Jr. said.
