Nets first-year coach Jordi Fernández and his players proved no match for the defending NBA champion Celtics at Barclays Center Wednesday. AP Photo by Heather Khalifa
Jordi Fernández had been eloquent, insightful, encouraging and resilient in both defending and, at times, criticizing his team through his first 11 games as the Brooklyn Nets’ rookie coach.
Following a blowout loss to the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics at Downtown’s Barclays Center Wednesday night, Fernández fumed a bit.
“It was not going our way, but you can never ever ever quit, or look defeated,” the 41-year-old native of Badalona, Spain insisted following a humbling 139-114 defeat to the Celtics in front of 18.112 fans on the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush.
“This is not who we want to be,” added Fernández.
Who the Nets (5-7) were through the first three weeks of the campaign, a tenacious, never-say-die, willful unit that refused to accept “rebuilding” as a moniker, wasn’t in evidence against a Celtics squad it had taken to overtime before bowing last Friday night in Boston.
This one was over much earlier as the champs opened a 115-95 cushion on Jrue Holliday’s basket with 7:11 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Playing Boston after it suffered a gut-wrenching one-point loss at home to Atlanta on Tuesday, the Nets appeared to be the team coming off a back-to-back despite Monday’s rousing victory in New Orleans.
In losing for the third time in four games, Brooklyn got outrebounded 45-34, including 12-3 on the offensive glass, surrendered 18 points off turnovers, was outscored 52-40 in the paint and lost the second-chance points battle by 10.
When asked if his team suffered from fatigue following a road trip that saw it play three games in four nights, Fernández failed to acknowledge even the slightest hint of an alibi.
“It’s all excuses,” he noted. “It is what it is. It’s the NBA. … We have to be better than this, plain and simple.”
Reigning NBA…
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