Kenny Atkinson endured a painful \u2014 and successful \u2014 rebuild in Brooklyn, so he knows exactly what Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez is going through.<\/p>\n
And the Cleveland coach said the suffering is going to pay off \u2014 even if it feels like the losses will never end.<\/p>\n
And the Nets took another on Sunday, beaten 106-102 by the Cavaliers before a sellout crowd of 17,804 at Barclays Center.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo doubt. You definitely go through those moments,\u201d said Atkinson. \u201cYou love to stay process-oriented and stick with the process, but you\u2019re going home and you\u2019re taking that \u2018L\u2019 after the game. It\u2019s hard, especially when they start stacking up. Everybody says, \u2018Don\u2019t worry.\u2019 Of course you worry if you\u2019re a competitor. But that\u2019s part of it, part of going through a rebuild and part of being a young coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you see the development. \u2026Once you break through \u2014 even that third year when we broke through and made the playoffs, it was doubly rewarding because you went through these real struggles and tough times. And man, I\u2019ll never forget when we clinched the playoffs. It was like you\u2019re winning the championship.<\/p>\n
Nets Grant Nelson slams the ball as James Harden #1 of the Cleveland Cavaliers watches during the first half when the Brooklyn Nets played the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday, March 1, 2026 Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was crazy because you look back at Year 1, we lost 27 of 29. It was insane: \u2018Are we ever gonna win another game?\u2019 [The breakthrough] will happen here because they drafted really good talent. They got really good coaching, good coaching staff, good front office. It\u2019ll break through. You\u2019re just waiting for that, \u2018When is that gonna happen?\u2019 I\u2019m sure Jordi\u2019s going, \u2018Man, everyone is saying it\u2019ll happen.\u2019 But they play so hard, it\u2019s eventually going to happen with their talent.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Nets played hard, and put some of the young talent on display. <\/p>\n
It just wasn\u2019t enough against a Cleveland team that was better, even sans Donovan Mitchell.<\/p>\n
Michael Porter Jr. poured in a game-high 26 points, but the rest was youth.<\/p>\n
First-round pick Danny Wolf added a career-high 23 points, nine rebounds, five assists and two steals \u2014 joining Bernard King, Chris Morris and Mike O\u2019Koren as the only Nets rookies to reach those stats. <\/p>\n
Teen guard Nolan Traore scored 17 and undrafted rookie Grant Nelson \u2014 on a 10-day contract \u2014 added 11 and four boards.<\/p>\n
James Harden dribbles the basketball while being guarded by a Brooklyn Nets player. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
But former Nets James Harden (22 points, nine rebounds, eight assists) and Jarrett Allen (20 points) were too much for their old team.<\/p>\n
The loss pulled the Nets (15-45) into a tie with Indiana for second in the lottery standings, pending the Pacers\u2019 game against Memphis. <\/p>\n
Brooklyn is 1 \u00bd games behind Sacramento for the top spot.<\/p>\n
Danny Wolf #2 of the Brooklyn Nets drives down court during the second half when the Brooklyn Nets played the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
Atkinson coached the Nets for four years, and took them from the league\u2019s worst team in his first season to the playoffs in his third. <\/p>\n
He helped GM Sean Marks build the Nets, and is convinced this second rebuild can work every bit as well.<\/p>\n
The Nets got torched Friday in Boston, letting the Celtics put up the highest effective field goal percentage in history (80.8%). <\/p>\n
They showed more fight this time, down by a bucket in the waning seconds when Wolf intentionally missed a free throw. <\/p>\n
But they couldn\u2019t get the board and watched the Cavs close it.<\/p>\n
After falling behind 16-5 early \u2014 ex-Nets Allen and Dennis Schr\u00f6der and Allen combining for a basket each \u2014 Brooklyn rallied.<\/p>\n
AP<\/p>\n
Still down 36-29 with 9:45 left in the first half, the Nets went on an extended 21-7 run to flip a seven-point deficit into a seven-point cushion. <\/p>\n
Traore\u2019s short jumper put Brooklyn up 50-43 with a minute left before the break.<\/p>\n
The Nets were still up 62-55 after Porter found Noah Clowney for a layup. <\/p>\n
They coughed up a 15-2 Cavs blitz, capped by Harden\u2019s free throw.<\/p>\n
The fourth quarter was tooth-and-nail.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFollow all the basketball buzz in Brooklyn\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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Josh Minott\u2019s 3-pointer put Brooklyn up 80-78 with 9:59 to play. <\/p>\n
But they conceded an 18-8 run over the next six minutes and never regained the lead.<\/p>\n
Allen\u2019s layup left his former team in a 96-88 hole.<\/p>\n
Brooklyn clawed within a point on Wolf\u2019s free throws with 9.2 seconds to play. <\/p>\n
But Schr\u00f6der sank two on the other end to put the Nets back where they were.<\/p>\n
With 5.9 seconds left, Wolf made a free throw and purposely missed the second, but bounced it off the backboard to give away possession down 104-102.<\/p>\n
Brooklyn got the break they needed when they fouled Schr\u00f6der and he missed the second free throw, but Day\u2019Ron Sharpe couldn\u2019t fend off Evan Mobley for the rebound, and the Cavs big man sealed it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kenny Atkinson endured a painful \u2014 and successful \u2014 rebuild in Brooklyn, so he knows exactly what Jordi…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3767],"tags":[7,670,247,3803,193,3627,562,6,671,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-633512","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-cleveland-cavaliers","13":"tag-kenny-atkinson","14":"tag-michael-porter-jr","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-nets","17":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116157186336474347","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633512","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=633512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}