The Brooklyn head coach and his team reflected back on the missed opportunity to knock off Boston.
The Brooklyn Nets must soon pick up the debris from their fallen chance at beating the Boston Celtics. Brooklyn and Boston went to two overtimes before the "C's" escaped.
How did Jordi Fernandez and the other Nets feel about the effort, though? Especially considering how Brooklyn chased out the thoughts from the debacle against the New York Knicks?
Fernandez dropped his honesty after taking the narrow loss.
"They're fighting back," Fernandez began via the YES Network. "We all remember the last three games, obviously the mistakes we made. We've executed well especially defensively. But there were situations where we could've been better."
Fernandez did mention the botched three-point defense on the Hugo Gonzalez basket with 0.4 left that eventually forced overtime -- and prevented a Nets win.
"We've executed late-game well in many games, especially defensively. Today, it was two situations where we could've been better,” Fernandez explained. “We’re up five, they throw a cross-court pass, and you have a chance to foul the center right there. And then, he would probably make one free-throw, and the game is over. We didn’t do it, and they made the three.
"Then the other one is we’re around the 3-point line, there’s a miscommunication, and they get a wide-open shot," Fernandez said regarding the final fourth quarter basket.
He became transparent about the lessons learned in that moment.
"So those are the things that you go through these experiences together," he said. "And as well as we've done it in prior games… Today, we made a couple mistakes, and those mistakes in this league against a very good team make you pay.”
He wasn't the only honest member of the Nets.
Rookie Nolan Traore also shared his honesty.
"The details matter when it's a close game," Traore said, following his career-best night of 21 points. "You learn that every detail matters, and you learn every mistake is finished. And that's what cost us the game."
Traore added how he's gaining new confidence especially with getting to know his teammates including what they're like. Hence the breakout scoring night.
But he believes he can do better and plans to work. Nic Claxton was another who delivered a blunt review of the loss.
"We played a really good game,” Claxton began. “I feel like we deserved to win. We just didn’t execute enough down the stretch, so we got to learn from it. But this is a tough loss, though. This one really hurt.”
Brooklyn in general has learned lots of valuable lessons during this rough season that's seen a younger group line up on the court.
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