Mikal Bridges and the Nets suffered their third straight loss in Utah Monday night, completing a dismal 1-4 road trip. AP Photo by Rick Bowmer
Mikal Bridges’ shooting slump continued just as the Brooklyn Nets’ brutal West Coast swing ended.
Bridges went 4-of-16 from the floor and Brooklyn got buried in the second half Monday night in Utah, suffering a 125-108 loss to the Jazz in front of a sellout crowd of 18,206 fans at the Delta Center.
“It’s been a tough road trip for us. Hopefully we learned a lot of lessons,” said Nets coach Jacque Vaughn after watching his squad surrender 71 second-half points to the Jazz.
“I don’t think we played well the whole game, really,” Vaughn added. “Even though we led by five at the half.”
The Nets’ leading scorer, Bridges misfired on 28 of 41 attempts during Brooklyn’s three consecutive defeats to close out a 1-4 road trip.
After opening the extended sojourn with a 131-118 setback in Sacramento on Dec. 11, the Nets (13-13) pulled out a heartening 116-112 victory against former teammate Kevin Durant and the Suns in Phoenix last Wednesday.
Bridges had scored at least 21 points in seven consecutive contests before failing to reach that mark at all on the tail end of this trip.
He had a season-low nine points on 3-of-8 shooting at defending NBA champion Denver last Thursday, put up 18 while going 6-of-17 from the floor Saturday at Golden State and only managed 13 against the Jazz (10-17), who have won three of their last four.
Cam Thomas scored 20 of his 32 points in the second half, Spencer Dinwiddie added 17 points and 11 assists and Nic Claxton finished with 11 points for Brooklyn, which went up 61-54 on Dinwiddie’s eight-footer to open the third quarter before the Jazz took over.
By the time Collin Sexton, John Collins and Lauri Markkanen made successive…
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