eventual 124-98 loss to the Heat on Tuesday night<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cI want Mike and the first group to play as hard as they can,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cI want to challenge them to do it, because I\u2019ve seen them doing it, especially on the defensive end. If that happens, I can live with whatever happens. If that is there, then you\u2019re being selfless, you\u2019re playing for the team, and just good things happen. I\u2019m trying to just challenge every guy in different ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Nets have their first chance to answer the call against the Heat again Thursday night.<\/p>\n
For Fern\u00e1ndez, it hopefully cannot be that much worse of a performance \u2014 one that Nic Claxton called \u201can all-around stinker.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miami\u2019s physicality on defense held the Nets to only 38.4 percent shooting from the field (33-for-86) and a brutal 18.8 percent (6-for-32) from deep, which is their third-worst mark from beyond the arc in a single game this season. They also committed 18 costly turnovers.<\/p>\n
Nets forward Michael Porter Jr. gets his weak offering swatted away by Kel\u2019el Ware (left) and Andrew Wiggins on Tuesday. AP<\/p>\n
It was easily Porter\u2019s worst game of the season, shooting 3-for-17 and 0-for-9 from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n
It was once thought that his first-half tear would have earned the 27-year-old his first All-Star nod as he averaged 25.6 points per game in the first 38 games of the season. <\/p>\n
Yet, his production has fallen off since the break, averaging just 19.8 points per game.<\/p>\n
However, the stat sheet and Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s challenge don\u2019t just come down to the starters and veteran players.<\/p>\n
Twelve of those turnovers came from two rookies alone.<\/p>\n
Nolan Traore, who started the game, scored 14 points and logged six turnovers without a single assist. <\/p>\n
Ben Saraf, who stood in for Egor D\u00ebmin as the backup point guard, also committed six turnovers against four assists.<\/p>\n
It was the most either of them has committed in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Traore and Saraf] need to grow. They need to grow and watch it and learn from it,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cAnd I know they\u2019re better. It\u2019s not an excuse if they\u2019re young. I\u2019ve watched them play and they\u2019re way better than 12 turnovers. How they organize the team, how vocal they are, all that, it\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nets guard Nolan Traore turned the ball over six times against the Heat on Tuesday. Imagn Images<\/p>\n
\u201cRegardless how they happened, you can\u2019t have that many [turnovers] for that many points,\u201d forward Noah Clowney added. \u201cI don\u2019t know how many they scored off of [them], but even [if] we missed layups or they blocked shots, they were running the other way and scoring in transition because we don\u2019t get back.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Nets (15-46), who sit second in the draft lottery race and 1 \u00b9\/\u2082 games behind the Kings, are in the middle of a tanking season and trying to find some victories outside of the wins column.<\/p>\n
However, it can weigh heavily on players as it has been made clear by the front office what the season mission is. <\/p>\n
Still, the Nets will be challenged to reset Thursday and put up a fight in South Beach.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know how to answer that. I take s\u2013t day by day,\u201d Clowney said when asked about the locker room environment during the losing streak. \u201cI couldn\u2019t tell you who we played last game. I try to forget about everything. Play, live in the moment. As far as the locker room, we\u2019ll figure it out. We got to.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A ninth straight loss would warrant any coach having a strong word with his or her team. Yet,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3767],"tags":[7,670,247,3803,248,562,6,671,3027,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-640472","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-jordi-fernandez","13":"tag-michael-porter-jr","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-nets","16":"tag-ny-sports-minute","17":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116175297822685114","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640472","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=640472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}