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Kenny Atkinson endured a painful rebuild in Brooklyn, so he knows exactly what Jordi Fernández is going through.
But he said the suffering will pay off, even if it feels like the losses will never end.
The Nets suffered another defeat Sunday, beaten 106-102 by Atkinson’s Cavaliers before a sellout crowd of 17,804 at Barclays Center.
“No doubt, you definitely go through those moments. You’re going home and you’re taking that ‘L’ after the game. It’s hard, especially when they start stacking up,” said Atkinson. “Of course you worry if you’re a competitor. But that’s part of it, part of going through a rebuild and part of being a young coach.
“And you see the development … It’ll happen here, because they drafted really good talent. They got really good coaching, good coaching staff, good front office. It’ll break through. You’re just waiting for that, ‘When is that gonna happen?’ I’m sure Jordi’s going, ‘Man, everyone is saying it’ll happen.’ But they play so hard, it’s eventually going to happen with their talent.”
Even with Egor Dëmin and Nic Claxton out, the Nets played hard.
It just wasn’t enough against a Cavs team that was better, even without Donovan Mitchell.
The loss pulled Brooklyn (15-45) within 1 ½ games of Sacramento, and just a half-game behind Indiana.
Michael Porter Jr. had 26 points.
Danny Wolf had a career-high 23 points, nine rebounds, five assists and two steals.
Nolan Traore scored 17 and Grant Nelson added 11 points, four boards and three blocks.
The latter trio are all rookies, and will learn from nights like this.
“I hate saying you can learn from a loss, because it stings and it sucks, and losing as a competitor is one of the worst feelings,” said Wolf. “But with such a young group, the resilience and the fight when you lose to a team by four that you lost by 40 a week ago speaks volumes to improvement.”
The improvement was a quantum leap from Feb. 19, when the Nets came out of the All-Star break and got hammered 112-84 by this same Cavs team.
And it was light-years better than Friday in Boston when they let the Celtics put up the highest effective field goal percentage in league history (80.8 percent).
But ex-Nets James Harden (22 points, nine rebounds, eight assists) and Jarrett Allen (20 points) tormented their old team.
Brooklyn was down 104-102 with 5.9 seconds left when Fernández — after the mistake of telling his players to hit both foul shots in the Jan. 29 loss at Denver — had Wolf try to miss the second.
But the rookie missed the rim entirely, bouncing it off the glass for a violation.
The Cavs iced it at the stripe.
“Missing it at that time is not that easy,” said Fernández.
“I think it’s harder to miss the way I missed than it is to make it,” Wolf said wryly. “It was the first time I’ve ever done that in my career. My thought process was to hit the front of the rim. Threw it definitely a little too hard. You live and learn.”
This entire season is about learning for this young team.
Brooklyn trailed by 11 in the first quarter, and was still down 36-29 with 9:45 left in the half before they used a 21-7 run to flip the seven-point deficit.
Traore’s jumper made it 50-43 with a minute left.
The Nets were still up 62-55 before Harden — who scored 12 in the third — sparked a 15-2 blitz.
The fourth quarter was fought tooth and nail, the Nets up 80-78 after Josh Minott’s 3-pointer with 9:59 to play.
But they conceded an 18-8 run and never regained the lead.
Brooklyn clawed within 104-101 with 5.9 seconds left.
Wolf made his first free throw, but bounced his second off the backboard to give away possession.
“When you miss free throws — obviously you want to hit the rim. It’s not easy to do it, and you have to practice,” said Fernández. “So, nothing to say to Danny. You want to learn from it, because you may be in that situation at some point.”