SALT LAKE CITY — Lose the battle, win the war.
Or more aptly, lose on the scoreboard, gain in the lottery standings.
Make no mistake, the decimated Nets played hard throughout a 112-111 overtime loss to the equally shorthanded Jazz before 18,175 at the Delta Center on Sunday. They played to win. But Nets fans can take solace in their failure to do so.
Nic Claxton put the Nets on the board first in overtime, but they gave up a Collin Sexton 3-pointer. And after Tyrese Martin missed both at the charity stripe with 3:30 left, Sexton drove for an all-too-easy layup to make it 107-104 with under three minutes left.
Ben Simmons hit a hook shot, and Tosan Evbuomwan made a jumper. But Bruce Sensabaugh’s 3-pointer put Brooklyn down 110-108 with 1:48 in overtime.
Evbuomwan made just one of two from the line, but the Nets got not one, not two, but three offensive rebounds. They failed to capitalize on any and got a shot clock violation with 36 seconds left in OT.
After Claxton stole the ball from Isaiah Collier, Evbuomwan drove with 6.4 seconds left and drew a foul on Collier. This time, he sank the first to knot it and calmly hit the second for a 111-110 lead.
But the Nets couldn’t hold it.
Collier got free for a driving layup with 2.4 seconds left on the clock that ended up being the winner.
But this loss may not hurt so much.
Brooklyn (13-26) has committed to building through the draft, with four first-round picks in June. And sitting 15th in the draft standings a month ago before trading away Dennis Schroder and Dorian Finney-Smith, they came into Sunday having dropped seven of their past eight — and moved into a tie for sixth in the lottery standings.
The Nets were tied with Portland, whom they visit Tuesday. And they’d been 3 ½ games behind the fifth-place Jazz, meaning Sunday’s game had lottery meaning.
“It’s the nature of the NBA,” coach Jordi Fernandez said. “We’re in the middle of the season, you’re going to have some injuries. So a lot of times you just see that it’s more about you than it’s about the other team. Control what you can control.
“We’ve got to focus on being better than the last game, keep competing for four quarters and focus on us. So, it’s a good challenge.”
Brooklyn also lost the most recent meeting with the Jazz, on Dec. 21 at Barclays Center. It kicked off a 2-10 stretch, sliding down the Eastern Conference standings but climbing up the lottery ladder.
Lauri Markkanen and Walker Kessler, who’d combined for 40 points and 17 rebounds in Utah’s last game, both sat out against the Nets. It didn’t matter.
Brooklyn was without not only Cam Thomas, but Cam Johnson and D’Angelo Russell as well.
Offense was as hard to come by as would be expected.
Two nights earlier in a loss to Denver, the Nets had shot 9-for-11 whenever they got out on the fast break, but a horrid 36.7 percent whenever they didn’t.
On Sunday, they had to rely on recently signed two-way player Evbuomwan (team-high 22 points) and Williams (19 points) to carry the scoring load.
Ben Simmons, in just his second game back, had 14 points, nine assists and six rebounds.
The Nets led 70-67 with four minutes left in the quarter on Martin’s dunk. But that’s when they lost control of the game.
Brooklyn conceded a 15-4 run over the next two minutes.
They found themselves down 82-74 with 1:32 left following a dunk by Collier.
Trailing 102–96 with two minutes left after Sexton’s free throws, the Nets closed with six unanswered points. After Simmons rebounded a Collier miss, Williams tied it at the line with 1:01 left in regulation.
After Martin did a great job to beat his man and draw the defense, Claxton couldn’t gather an alley-oop dunk attempt in the waning seconds. Utah had one last ditch try with 1.7 seconds on the clock, but Sensabaugh missed to send it into overtime.
That’s where the Nets lost it.
