The Nets were in position to break their 8-game losing streak, but in the end, the result was the same.
Despite being tied with 37 seconds remaining, Houston guard Aaron Brooks scored six straight points and the Rockets survived with a 98-93 win in The Izod Center.
The Nets trailed, 91-88, with 1:38 remaining, but Keyon Dooling drained a three-pointer to knot the game at 91. New Jersey had a chance to go ahead with 59 seconds left, but Yi Jianlian's three-point attempt came up short.
Aaron Brooks answered for Houston with a driving lay-up along the baseline. The Houston 93-91 lead held up as Dooling missed a three-pointer with 29 seconds left. Houston went 5-of-6 from the free-throw line to close the game.
Carl Landry gave the Nets' defense fits as he poured in a game-high 27 points off the Rockets' bench. Brooks and Luis Scola added 17 points apiece for Houston.
Landry led Houston with five offensive rebounds. The Rockets outrebounded the Nets, 51-39, and 16-6 on the offensive glass.
According to Nets' interim head coach Kiki Vandeweghe, the "little things" have cost the 2-28 Nets during their 9-game losing streak.
"Clearly you're not going to win a game when you give up 16 offensive rebounds," Vandeweghe said. "I think it's just the little things. Tonight it was the offensive rebounds... It's disappointing and you have a right to be upset, but tomorrow we go back to work."
Count Yi Jianlian's technical foul with 2:26 among the little mistakes the Nets made. Houston led, 90-86, when Yi drove baseline and finished with a dunk. He swung and pulled his body upwards, however, earning him a technical foul.
Yi finished with 17 points and defended his dunk, saying that the momentum of his body gave him no other option but to swing.
"I still don't know what I did wrong," Yi said. "I saved my body. I don't know why they called it."
The Nets trailed, 57-51, at halftime and 70-69 after three quarters. New Jersey got back into the game by limiting Houston to 13 points in the third quarter. The two teams exchanged leads in the fourth quarter before the Rockets closed the Nets out.
Devin Harris led the Nets in scoring with 19 points on 9-of-22 shooting. Brook Lopez and Yi both added 17 points, while Dooling chipped in 11 points off the bench.
Lopez shook his head after the way the Nets lost their latest game.
"It's better than what happened before," said Lopez, referring to some of the Nets' lopsided losses. "We just have to break through... We're right there."
The Nets played without Chris Douglas-Roberts again tonight. The guard rolled his ankle late in a loss to Los Angeles last Saturday. Douglas-Roberts and Jarvis Hayes are both expected to return next week.
New Jersey returns to action Monday when it hosts Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Nets will enjoy a brief homestand as they host the Thunder, Knicks, and Cavaliers next week.
Comments
You seem to love blaming everything on Yi right? What about the rest of the team? Yi had a bs technical foul call and he missed a three pointer to save the game, but he was also the one who tied the game up, don't forget that. Oh and surely it's all Yi's fault when last night you had the whole team trying to play hero and not stickin their head in the game. The guy was out 7 weeks, this is probably over the maximum that we all expected from him. Last night was probably the first time I've seen Nets fans that enthusiastic. I'm not disappointed because it was a worthwhile game in the end, but the "little things" reference you quoted off Kiki in your view seems to be "it's all the Chinese guy's fault".
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