SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Coming out of the gift part of their schedule, now the Nets begin the gauntlet.
And Monday night wasn’t the start they wanted.
The Nets opened a brutal five-game West Coast swing with a 131-118 loss to the Kings before a sellout crowd of 17,794 at Golden 1 Center.
The Nets (12-10) had started to look better on defense in winning six of seven, although that came by protecting the rim — and the paint at all cost.
They has left them vulnerable from deep on occasion, and the Kings punished that Achilles’ heel mercilessly, early and often.
Allowing an eye-watering 25-for-45 shooting from behind the arc — a Kings franchise record for makes — the Nets fell behind by as much as 21.
And despite making several rallies to get back within a couple of buckets, they kept conceding momentum-changing 3-pointers.
“They were back-breakers,” Dorian Finney-Smith said.
“Their shot selection [was key]. They had 3s and rim, which we talked about before the game,” coach Jacque Vaughn said. “So with us conversely shooting I think 28 middies you’re just not going to win three versus two: That math just don’t add up.
“And then them getting out in transition, transition points, being able to get downhill and get corner 3s. So this is a great, great challenge for us on the road. We see what’s going to be like in Game 1, and can we respond the rest of the trip?”
Vaughn was right about one thing: The Nets’ shot distribution was terrible.
The Nets thrive on 3s but went just 14 of 29 from deep, lured into taking 28 from midrange — and making just 10.
“They hit a lot of 3s. Now obviously you’re trying to slow down [De’Aaron] Fox and make them shoot tough middies and all that; but they got up a lot of 3s and made 25 of them,” Cam Johnson said. “They were funneling us into middies, spraying out. But it’s on us. We only shot 29 3s and they made 25. So it’s a big difference in the game and the flow of the game and just how points accumulate.”
Mikal Bridges had 22 points, five rebounds and five assists. But Cam Thomas’ 18 points came on inefficient 7-for-20 shooting.
Nic Claxton had a tough night against Domantas Sabonis (15 points, 16 rebounds, nine assists), while Fox poured in a game-high 29 points for Sacramento.
The Nets fell behind early, allowing seven unanswered to trail 11-4 when Sabonis found Keegan Murray for a layup less than four minutes in.
They never got out of that hole, forced into rotation after rotation by Sacramento’s ball movement.
That deficit reached 15 in the second, at 43-28 on Sabonis’ layup.
The Nets cut it to four, and Finney-Smith’s 3-pointer made it 81-74 with 4:34 left in the third. But that’s as close as they got, giving up a 7-0 run.
Murray’s running 3 made it 89-74 and sent Vaughn scurrying for a timeout. It didn’t help.
The deficit swelled in the fourth, to 129-108 on a Trey Lyles 3.
“We’ve got to do a better job running them off the line,” said Finney-Smith.
Things won’t get any easier for the Nets, at least not for awhile.
The Nets’ last seven foes during their 6-1 hot streak had a .424 winning percentage, all but two with losing marks.
But the Nets came into the Kings matchup just 5-7 against teams that were .500 or better. Now make that 5-8, and counting.
Next up Wednesday night is a trip to face their former superstar Kevin Durant and his Suns team, marking Bridges and Johnson’s return to Phoenix.
Then comes arguably the toughest possible assignment on the second night of a back-to-back, against Nikola Jokic and defending-champion Denver at mile-high altitude.
That’s three straight winning teams, followed by Steph Curry and always-dangerous Golden State and finally Utah.
That makes for a tough trip.
“Give credit to them: they made us shoot the shot they wanted us to shoot. We’ve got to do a better job of getting off more 3s,” Finney-Smith said. “They were just the better team of getting off 3s. And making them. They ain’t just take ‘em; they made ’em.”
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