{"id":633776,"date":"2026-03-02T05:13:30","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T05:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/633776\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T05:13:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T05:13:30","slug":"kenny-atkinson-confident-rebuild-will-pay-off-as-former-nets-team-suffers-tight-loss-to-cavaliers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/633776\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenny Atkinson confident rebuild will pay off as former Nets team suffers tight loss to Cavaliers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kenny Atkinson endured a painful rebuild in Brooklyn, so he knows exactly what Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez is going through.<\/p>\n

But he said the suffering will pay off, even if it feels like the losses will never end.<\/p>\n

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The Nets suffered another defeat Sunday, beaten 106-102 by Atkinson\u2019s Cavaliers before a sellout crowd of 17,804 at Barclays Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo doubt, you definitely go through those moments. You\u2019re going home and you\u2019re taking that \u2018L\u2019 after the game. It\u2019s hard, especially when they start stacking up,\u201d said Atkinson. \u201cOf 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 \u2026 It\u2019ll 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

Even with Egor D\u00ebmin and Nic Claxton out, the Nets played hard.<\/p>\n

\"Nets<\/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

It just wasn\u2019t enough against a Cavs team that was better, even without Donovan Mitchell.<\/p>\n

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The loss pulled Brooklyn (15-45) within 1 \u00bd games of Sacramento, and just a half-game behind Indiana.<\/p>\n

Michael Porter Jr. had 26 points.<\/p>\n

Danny Wolf had a career-high 23 points, nine rebounds, five assists and two steals.<\/p>\n

Nolan Traore scored 17 and Grant Nelson added 11 points, four boards and three blocks.<\/p>\n

The latter trio are all rookies, and will learn from nights like this.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate saying you can learn from a loss, because it stings and it sucks, and losing as a competitor is one of the worst feelings,\u201d said Wolf. \u201cBut with such a young group, the resilience and the fight when you lose to a team by four that you lost by 40 a week ago speaks volumes to improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The improvement was a quantum leap from Feb. 19, when the Nets came out of the All-Star break and got hammered 112-84 by this same Cavs team.<\/p>\n

\"James<\/p>\n

James Harden dribbles the basketball while being guarded by a Brooklyn Nets player. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n

And it was light-years better than Friday in Boston when they let the Celtics put up the highest effective field goal percentage in league history (80.8 percent).<\/p>\n

But ex-Nets James Harden (22 points, nine rebounds, eight assists) and Jarrett Allen (20 points) tormented their old team.<\/p>\n

Brooklyn was down 104-102 with 5.9 seconds left when Fern\u00e1ndez \u2014 after the mistake of telling his players to hit both foul shots in the Jan. 29 loss at Denver \u2014 had Wolf try to miss the second.<\/p>\n

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But the rookie missed the rim entirely, bouncing it off the glass for a violation.<\/p>\n

\"Danny<\/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

The Cavs iced it at the stripe.<\/p>\n

\u201cMissing it at that time is not that easy,\u201d said Fern\u00e1ndez.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s harder to miss the way I missed than it is to make it,\u201d Wolf said wryly. \u201cIt was the first time I\u2019ve ever done that in my career. My thought process was to hit the front of the rim. Threw it definitely a little too hard. You live and learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

This entire season is about learning for this young team.<\/p>\n

\"AP\"<\/p>\n

AP<\/p>\n

Brooklyn trailed by 11 in the first quarter, and was still down 36-29 with 9:45 left in the half before they used a 21-7 run to flip the seven-point deficit.<\/p>\n

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Traore\u2019s jumper made it 50-43 with a minute left.<\/p>\n

The Nets were still up 62-55 before Harden \u2014 who scored 12 in the third \u2014 sparked a 15-2 blitz.<\/p>\n

The fourth quarter was fought tooth and nail, the Nets up 80-78 after Josh Minott\u2019s 3-pointer with 9:59 to play.<\/p>\n

But they conceded an 18-8 run and never regained the lead.<\/p>\n

Brooklyn clawed within 104-101 with 5.9 seconds left.<\/p>\n

Wolf made his first free throw, but bounced his second off the backboard to give away possession.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you miss free throws \u2014 obviously you want to hit the rim. It\u2019s not easy to do it, and you have to practice,\u201d said Fern\u00e1ndez. \u201cSo, nothing to say to Danny. You want to learn from it, because you may be in that situation at some point.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kenny Atkinson endured a painful rebuild in Brooklyn, so he knows exactly what Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez is going through.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3767],"tags":[7,45,670,247,3803,306,46,1042,301,864,227,3526,113,560,1178,248,7272,3627,562,6,671,2728,53508,986],"class_list":["post-633776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn-nets","tag-basketball","tag-boston","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-nets","tag-brooklynnets","tag-cavaliers","tag-celtics","tag-danny-wolf","tag-denver","tag-donovan-mitchell","tag-egor-demin","tag-grant-nelson","tag-indiana","tag-james-harden","tag-jarrett-allen","tag-jordi-fernandez","tag-josh-minott","tag-kenny-atkinson","tag-michael-porter-jr","tag-nba","tag-nets","tag-nic-claxton","tag-robert-sabo","tag-sacramento"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116157876899979111","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633776","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=633776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}