Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times
The Nets' Kevin Garnett (2) and the Wizards' Garrett Temple chasing down the ball in the first half. Garnett, with limited playing time, scored 7 points.
The players — Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Joe Johnson, Deron Williams and Brook Lopez — have a combined 35 All-Star selections. This season, however, the team has rarely been able to employ the star-laden lineup: Entering Wednesday's game, the group had shared the court for a total of only 78 minutes over the course of nine games.
On the court together to start the fourth quarter, the unit nearly rallied the team to victory but came up short in a game that exposed many of the team's larger flaws.
The Nets repeatedly left Washington's shooters open on the perimeter, and the Wizards took advantage by going 12 for 20 from 3-point range. Washington's shooting confidence was bolstered by its dominance in the paint, with 19 offensive rebounds keeping possessions alive and leading to a number of second-chance points.
The Nets' struggles to contain Washington's offense muted the return of Lopez from a sprained ankle that had kept him out of the last two games.
Back in the paint, Lopez was the focal point of the Nets' offense in the first half, but he ran into foul trouble and had a difficult and tentative night on defense. Although he finished the game with 22 points, he had only five rebounds and often looked overmatched as Trevor Booker and Marcin Gortat combined for 23 rebounds.
"I personally didn't do a great job," Lopez said. "Obviously, that's what won the game for them."
Both Jason Kidd, the Nets' coach, and Garnett cited the rebounding differential as what cost the team the game, but both were quick to take the blame off Lopez.
"They crashed three or four guys each time, and they were able to get offensive rebounds," Garnett said. "Offensive rebounds mean second shots, and we didn't do a good job of controlling that."
Kidd said Lopez was frequently forced to defend pick-and-rolls that led to him being away from the basket, which explained some of his defensive problems.
Despite the Wizards' ability to dominate the paint, the Nets were kept in the game largely by Pierce, who continued to thrive as the team's sixth man.
In his fifth consecutive game off the bench — Pierce started 1,099 of 1,102 games during 15 seasons with the Boston Celtics — he provided an immediate lift to the team on both offense and defense. With less than four minutes left in the first quarter, he entered what was shaping up as a blowout and immediately hit a 3-pointer. His presence helped lead the team on a 12-3 run that made the game interesting.
Despite a season-high 27 points, Pierce was not celebrating.
"It is easy to sit here and talk to you guys about what kind of night I had, but the bottom line is I really don't care," Pierce said. "We lost the game, and that is pretty much all that matters."
Kidd was noncommittal about whether the bench role would be permanent for Pierce, repeatedly saying that his staff would look at the tape and try to figure out how to make the team better.
"I mean, I don't really care," Pierce said when asked if he wanted the change to be permanent. "I have adjusted."
Pierce thrived, but the rest of the team seemed out of sync for large periods of the game. Williams passed up a number of seemingly open shots (while tying his season high with 13 assists), and Alan Anderson, who replaced Pierce in the starting lineup, had no points, no assists and one rebound in 19 minutes.
In the end, a day that started with Kidd talking about the faith his players and the Nets organization have shown in him ended with the team looking flawed. And this time, there were no injuries to blame.
REBOUNDS
Reggie Evans, who has found his role greatly diminished in the Jason Kidd era, entered the game in the third quarter to loud chants of "Reg-gie! Reg-gie!" He played six minutes. ... On Wednesday, Spike Lee revealed on Twitter that Ray Allen of the Miami Heat planned to wear "J. Shuttlesworth" on his jersey during his team's matchups with the Nets on March 12 and April 8. Players on both sides will have nicknames on their jerseys rather than their last names. The name is a reference to Allen's character, Jesus Shuttlesworth, in Lee's film "He Got Game."
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