Brooklyn Nets guard Joe Harris was lights out shooting the ball in Thursday’s 117-112 loss to the Phoenix Suns. In the losing effort, he had 16 points (6-of-6 shooting from the field and 4-of-4 shooting from three-point land) and four assists.
In another frustrating game without Kevin Durant, Brooklyn found it hard to generate offense and struggled to defend at a high level consistently. Harris was one of few players (other than Nic Claxton, Seth Curry, and Cam Thomas) that was able to put points on the board in an efficient manner.
However, something changed in the fourth quarter. Brooklyn won the fourth quarter 38-23 thanks to Kyrie Irving scoring 21 of his 30 points in the period. Thanks to the Nets’ improved defensive effort and zone defense, Phoenix was held to 30% shooting from the field and that allowed Brooklyn to get back into the game. Harris spoke postgame about what allowed that comeback to happen:
“I think, just a sense of urgency. We’re getting our (expletive) kicked so we’re trying to come back and win the game. Obviously, we changed some things up. We started playing zone, which we never done before, but we figured it out on the fly. And, we’re able to rebound fairly well out of the zone. Kind of forced them into taking some more contested mid range shots to limit some of their outside opportunities. All the stuff that we talked about before the game, we were trying to do, but we weren’t able to do it in just our normal man to man coverage. So, we had to change things up and we played better when we did, but it’s a little too late.”
List
Player grades: Kyrie Irving scores 30 in deceptive 117-112 loss to the Suns
List
NBA Twitter reacts to Nets’ 117-112 loss to the Phoenix Suns
Story originally appeared on Nets Wire
