The Utah Jazz lost twice this month to the 4-22 Minnesota Timberwolves, but there was no letdown against the Nets on Wednesday night.
Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams each recorded double-doubles and Utah cruised past New Jersey, 108-92.
Boozer scored a game-high 26 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, while Williams tallied 20 points and dished out 14 assists. The two combined to shoot 17-of-26 from the field and the Jazz shot 56.3 percent as a team.
Nets' interim head coach Kiki Vandeweghe said his team needs to sustain better pressure defensively in order to win games. Utah outscored New Jersey, 25-7, in fast-break points.
"We're not going to overcome unless we get better defensively," Vandeweghe said. "It's no secret... What we take away from today is we've got to get better in transition, and we've got to clean up our defense.
"That's a good habit of good teams. They play defense every single time down the court."
With 9:40 remaining in the second quarter, Terrence Williams converted a three-point play to give the Nets a 31-29 lead. New Jersey never led again as Utah closed out the half on a 23-10 run. The Nets shot 26 percent from the field in the second quarter after shooting 67 percent in the first quarter.
The Nets never recovered from their second-quarter drought. Utah led by 11 at the half and opened up an 18-point lead early in the fourth quarter. Utah grabbed its largest lead with 1:14 left to play in regulation when Kyrylo Fesenko made a free-throw to make it 108-88.
Despite shooting 67 percent in the first quarter, the Nets finished the game converting 43.2 percent from the field.
Vandeweghe attributed the Nets' struggles to missing open shots.
"For the most part, we're getting good shots. I've been in situations before where it seems to be contagious where everybody misses easy shots," Vandeweghe said. "We missed a lot of easy shots tonight and it just compounds."
The Nets were coming off a back-to-back after playing in Cleveland last night. New Jersey cut Utah's lead to single digits after an 11-2 run made it 82-73 with 9:25 left in regulation. The Nets got no closer than an 8-point deficit, however, at 92-84.
"We kind of ran out of gas a little bit," said Devin Harris, who shot 1-of-9 from the field. "It was that last little thunder before they put the big run on us."
According to Harris, the Nets struggles from the outside have prevented them from doing what they do best: drive to the basket.
"There's not a whole lot of driving lanes. Obviously they can double and triple team Brook," Harris said. "Unless we're able to hit those shots, it's a struggle to get points in the paint."
Brook Lopez, despite the constant attention, posted another double-double. He scored 23 points on 9-of-18 shooting and hauled in 10 rebounds.
Harris credited Lopez for his work in the struggling offense.
"It's tough. I mean, he's doing a great job," Harris said. "He's giving us a big lift in that first quarter, and we've just got to get to the point where we can still make him effective even throughout the double-teams and different things that he's seeing."
Terrence Williams and Courtney Lee were the only other Nets to score in double figures. Williams scored 17 points in 20 minutes off the bench while Lee scored 15 points.
Although Lopez's statistics are among the best in the league, the center gets little satisfaction when the team is 2-24.
"I try to rebound and do as much of the dirty work as possible, but the point's moot if the result isn't a win," Lopez said.
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