{"id":555137,"date":"2026-01-23T09:01:33","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T09:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/555137\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T09:01:33","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T09:01:33","slug":"after-54-point-loss-to-knicks-nets-search-for-answers-and-a-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/555137\/","title":{"rendered":"After 54-point loss to Knicks, Nets search for answers and a response"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Nets<\/a> had already been through ugly this season. Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden managed to find a new level anyway.<\/p>\n

Brooklyn\u2019s 120-66 loss to the Knicks<\/a> was the kind of final score that makes you check your phone twice just to be sure it is real. It was a 54-point avalanche, the second-worst loss in franchise history, and it left the Nets wearing the kind of night that stings and lingers.<\/p>\n

The Knicks played like a team trying to wash away their own skid, and Brooklyn played like a team that never made it out of the tunnel. And yet, inside the Nets locker room afterward, the focus wasn\u2019t on pointing fingers or spinning excuses. It was on owning it, absorbing it and dragging themselves forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cTonight was even worse, and I\u2019m the one responsible for it,\u201d head coach Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cPlayers have to move on, find a way to. This is a tough one but show up the next day and have positive energy and work and get better and go out there and compete. I have to help them better.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t a one-off line meant to end the interview. Fern\u00e1ndez kept going, blunt about where the Nets have been lately and how far they have drifted from anything close to their standard.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the last 12 games, we\u2019ve been poor defensively, poor offensively, and that falls on me,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cPlayers are not responsible for it, so I\u2019ve got to make sure they understand the values that we have and how we want to play. We\u2019ll work to get that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nets have heard the numbers. They have lived them. But Wednesday\u2019s loss made them impossible to ignore because the Knicks weren\u2019t just hitting shots. They were controlling the tone, the floor, the glass and the paint. Brooklyn didn\u2019t stand a chance. They didn\u2019t consistently attack the teeth of the defense. They didn\u2019t create any physical pushback that would make a home team flinch.<\/p>\n

\u201cZero second-chance points,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cWe have rules to go get those boards\u2026 They were the most physical team, they were the best team out there, and we\u2019ve just got to learn from it and move on. Like I said, I\u2019ve got a lot to figure out.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the thing about a blowout like this. It is not just one bad night. It forces every small issue into the light at the same time. Physicality. Communication. Confidence. The ability to respond once the game slips. The ability to respond after the season faded a while ago.<\/p>\n

Even as Fern\u00e1ndez took the blame, his players didn\u2019t let him carry it alone. Rookie Drake Powell spoke with the kind of straightforward honesty that\u2019s rare, especially from someone this early in his career. He called it what it was.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing was just mainly a fight that\u2019s got to come to play every night,\u201d Powell said. \u201cOtherwise, in the NBA, competitive league, you can get blown out like football. I think just the lack of energy that we came out with. I think it starts on defense when we\u2019re playing on the road. You\u2019ve got to make sure your defense travels, and I don\u2019t think that did tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Powell said the message afterward didn\u2019t come from one place. The loudest voices belonged to the vets.<\/p>\n

That matters, because the Nets can\u2019t afford to let a game like Wednesday turn into a week-long fog. They play again Friday. The schedule doesn\u2019t care about embarrassment, and the league is too unforgiving to sulk.<\/p>\n

Powell didn\u2019t pretend he saw it coming either, which might have been the most unsettling part. This didn\u2019t feel like a team sleepwalking through a trip to Manhattan. It felt like a team that got hit and stayed down.<\/p>\n

When Fern\u00e1ndez took full responsibility, Powell pushed back, gently but firmly, the way a teammate does when the moment calls for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 100 percent don\u2019t agree,\u201d Powell said. \u201cI think we\u2019re the ones that are out there playing, making decisions, and I think it\u2019s ultimately on us as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noah Clowney did not dress it up either. The forward pointed to the way the Knicks approached it, and the way the Nets did not match it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everybody\u2019s on the same page that we shouldn\u2019t be losing by 60,\u201d Clowney said.<\/p>\n

That is the truth Brooklyn has to sit with now. Not just that they got beaten, but that they got beaten in the areas that are supposed to travel: effort, physicality and fight. The Nets can talk about plans and process, and Fern\u00e1ndez still believes in both.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the only way forward after a night like Wednesday. No shortcuts. No excuses. Just showing up the next day and doing it again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe in the players. I believe in the coaches, and this doesn\u2019t stop the plan that we have,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cIt\u2019s just obviously a tough experience to go through, but we will be better. Me, the first one.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Nets had already been through ugly this season. Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden managed to find…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3767],"tags":[7,670,247,3803,997,248,304,6,671],"class_list":{"0":"post-555137","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn-nets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-brooklyn-nets","11":"tag-brooklynnets","12":"tag-drake-powell","13":"tag-jordi-fernandez","14":"tag-knicks","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-nets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115943603245518166","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}