Something has to give when the Brooklyn Nets, losers of four straight games, square off against the slumping, short-handed Spurs on Tuesday night in San Antonio.
The Spurs play the second of a two-game homestand that began with a 146-132 loss to Western Conference-leading Oklahoma City on Sunday. Rookie Stephon Castle scored 32 points off the bench, which was just one point off his career high, and De’Aaron Fox had 20 points while playing his first true home game since being traded to San Antonio in early February.
“We scored 132 points — that’s enough to win every game in a season, but you can’t give up 146 and expect to win,” Fox said.
Jeremy Sochan added 17 points, Devin Vassell had 15 and Harrison Barnes scored 14 for the Spurs, who have dropped five of their past six games. They have been without star center Victor Wembanyama since Feb. 20 because of deep vein thrombosis (blood clot) in his right shoulder, which ended his season.
San Antonio, playing on back-to-back nights after winning in Memphis on Saturday, led by five points at halftime while canning a team-record 16 3-pointers for a half. But the Spurs ran out of gas in the second half, trailing by as many as 22 points late in the game.
“We made a lot of shots, and at some point we stopped scoring a little bit,” Spurs interim head coach Mitch Johnson said. “That’s where you have to put your energy at getting the stops and getting the rebounds and not turning ball over.”
The Nets head to San Antonio on the heels of a 115-94 setback in Detroit on Saturday. Tyrese Martin led the Brooklyn with 23 points off the bench. Jalen Wilson scored 14 points and Cameron Johnson added 13 in a game the Nets trailed by 23 points at halftime but rallying to within six points heading to the fourth before succumbing.
Brooklyn shot just 30.5 percent (29 of 95) from the floor in the loss and made only 6 of its 39 3-point attempts (15.4 percent). Johnson went 0-for-10 from beyond the arc, snapping a 60-game streak with at least one 3-pointer.
“Obviously, we struggled to shoot, and It’s hard to win a basketball game when you shoot like this,” Nets coach Jordi Fernandez said. “We will keep shooting — that means the next game we’re going to make more.
“On the positive side, we did OK taking care of the ball against a very aggressive defensive team and we created 24 points out of 23 turnovers, which tells you we were aggressive (on the defensive end).”
After tying a season-high with three straight wins in the second week of February, Brooklyn has dropped five of its past six games.
Brooklyn played without leading scorer Cam Thomas, who returned in Friday’s loss at home to Portland after missing two months with a strained left hamstring, and D’Angelo Russell (sprained right ankle). Russell has not played since Feb. 20 but could return. Thomas is expected to play.
On Monday, the Nets announced that they would not re-sign former lottery pick Killian Hayes to a second 10-day contract, cutting the point guard loose after he started Brooklyn’s past five games.
San Antonio won the first game between the teams this season 96-87 on Dec. 27 in Brooklyn.
