CHICAGO — Injuries are rising, and so are losses.
The Nets lost their third straight game after losing 128-102 to the Bulls on Monday night, giving up 19,131 points at the United Center.
The slide rivaled the Nets' worst of the season.
The injury list is basically the same, with eight players out, including starters Cam Thomas, Dorian Finney-Smith, Ben Simmons, and now Cam Johnson, the latter with a late injury due to a sprained left ankle. It was.
Rookie head coach Jordi Fernandez has had to shuffle and reshuffle his squad, but not once except on Monday, the final day of back-to-back games.
No matter how much he shuffled, the hand he was dealt was useless.
“Well, we're in a situation now where we have a new lineup almost every game,” Fernandez said. “These types of injuries, especially injuries that are out of your control, like ankles and knees, force us to have a next-man mentality, and I think that's been a competitive advantage lately.”Here. For two games, we have played against very good teams.
“We didn't get the win. [Sunday]. But after the last game, after watching the film, I was so proud of the players. Fighting, competitiveness. There were still things we could have improved on, especially offensively, but our opponent was one of the biggest teams in terms of size and so on. So obviously we're looking at what we could have done differently. But I'm very proud of them. ”
The Nets (9-13) didn't play a good team on Monday. But what remains of it – what is already working on rebuilding – certainly does not fit that description either.
With Dennis Schroder and Nic Claxton the only regular starters, Fernandes gave Keon Johnson his first start as a Net along with Jalen Martin and Jaylen Wilson.
They changed their starting five for eight straight games, but even Schroder's big night couldn't prevent an explosion.
Neither could big man Dayron Sharpe, who made his season debut after returning from a hamstring injury.
Schroder had 16 points and 10 assists without a turnover, and second-year guard Darik Whitehead, who essentially lost his rookie season to injury, had an outstanding night.
In his fifth NBA game, he scored 18 points on 6-of-10 shooting from deep. At 20 years and 123 days old, he was just three days older than Clowney and became the youngest player in franchise history to make at least five 3-pointers.
But the Nets allowed 52.2 percent from the field in a game that got out of hand early. The Nets held onto a slim 42-37 lead in the second quarter thanks to Shake Milton's 3-point shooting (14 points, 6 rebounds), but allowed a 28-10 run that extended into the first half.
By the time veteran center Nikola Vucevic (21 points, 10 rebounds) made a 3-pointer off a feed from Josh Guidi to close out the game, the Nets were down 65-52 with 10:18 left in the third quarter. Ta.
The rest was garbage time. Guidi's jumper with 8 minutes and 44 seconds remaining increased the lead to 105-80, leaving the trailing Nets with just one point left.
“We're still the same team and we're going to do what we have to do,” Fernandes said. “Obviously, we have a team that has players in different roles. For example, we're missing Cam Thomas, who was a very efficient scorer. But then one or two other guys… You can play.
“Are they going to be Cam Thomas? No, we're still going to put pressure on the ball. We're going to continue to work to get deflections. We're still going to run to our spot.” We still try to get through the paint, we turn the ball over, we try to take the right shots. So, still play with our identity and play very hard.”
