Nets run out of gas in loss to Wizards

The Nets were tired.

Patty Mills was tired, his 33-year-old body averaging the most minutes of his career this season after he also played in the Olympics.

Andre Drummond was tired, adapting to a bigger workload now that he’s a Net.

And the rest of the team — an undermanned, depleted crew that clawed to erase a 28-point deficit against the Knicks on Wednesday night but now was trying to hold on in the second game of a back-to-back with the All-Star break on the horizon — was exhausted, too.

"We just couldn’t really get enough going offensively, paint touches and spraying the ball around and getting cleaner looks," Steve Nash said after the Nets’ 117-103 loss to the Wizards at Barclays Center. "We were just really small as well. They worked their butts off, but we were probably a little fatigued and a little shorthanded."

Back-to-back three-pointers by Cam Thomas and Jevon Carter helped the Nets erase a 13-point deficit in the third quarter, but they were outscored 39-25 in the fourth and allowed a momentum-shifting 8-0 run early in the quarter.

Mills led the Nets with 22 points and Thomas added 20. The Nets shot 40.3% to the Wizards’ 55.4%. Seven players scored in double digits for the Wizards.

Rui Hachimura scored 13 of his 20 points and Ish Smith added 11 of his 15 points in the fourth quarter. The two totaled 11-for-13 shooting in the quarter.

The Nets go into the break 31-28 and in eighth place in the Eastern Conference — disappointing, given the super-team they thought they had going into the season. But it’s also not as bad as things could have been, given injuries to Kevin Durant and Joe Harris, the James Harden trade and the fact that Kyrie Irving can’t play in home games because of his vaccination status. It’s also not clear when Ben Simmons, the marquee return in the Harden deal, will return to the court.

"We’re excited," Nash said of the games to come. "We have 22 games [actually 23] to come together as a team. Kevin returning, Ben returning. Hopefully we have a good run of health where we can really build something in a short period of time and get a better seed and also more cohesion going into the playoffs."

Both teams had evenly matched, if sloppy, first halves, with the Wizards taking a 55-51 lead at the break behind a 9-0 run to end the second quarter.

The Nets stayed in it largely because of Mills, who scored 17 points in the first half, shooting 4-for-5 from behind the arc. He had five three-pointers total, putting him at 186 — fourth in franchise history in single-season three-pointers and well within shooting distance of D’Angelo Russell’s record of 234 in 2018-19. Mills will represent the Nets in the All-Star three-point shooting contest.

"I think it’s going to be totally different so I’m going to have to feel it out and see how it goes," he said, adding that he asked Harris for pointers. "I’m looking forward to it."

The Wizards led by as many as 13 in the third quarter before the Nets put together a 23-7 run to go up by three.

But though they went into the fourth quarter tied, the Nets again struggled to get a stop. An 8-0 run put the Wizards up 88-80.

After the game, Drummond was asked what it was like adapting to this new life — going from limited minutes off the bench with the 76ers to starting with the Nets.

"Tired, tired," he said, echoing the theme of the night.

That should change when play resumes. "By the time the break is over, I should be back to normal again,’’ he said. "Just getting myself back in that speed and that mode again."

With some big-time reinforcements on the way, the Nets hope to do the same.

By Laura Albanese

laura.albanese@newsday.com@AlbaneseLaura

Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.