DENVER — Jordi Fernandez spent six years with the Nuggets, helping build a winner — honing the roadmap he hopes to replicate in Brooklyn.
But the first-year head coach’s rebuilding and threadbare team got a reminder of just how far they have to go.
The Nets were dominated by Nikola Jokic and Russell Westbrook, torched by twin triple-doubles in a 124-105 loss on Friday before a sellout crowd of 19,959 at Ball Arena.
The loss was the Nets’ fourth straight and the seventh of their last eight games, tipping off a marathon six-game road trek.
Jokic — who had missed the prior two games with an illness — returned with 35 points, 15 assists and 12 rebounds.
Westbrook had 25 points, 11 boards and 10 assists, making them the first teammates in NBA history with triple-doubles in the same game multiple times in a season.
“First half, I almost died,” Jokic said.
Still, shorthanded as the Nets were — sans Cam Thomas, Cam Johnson and D’Angelo Russell — they gave themselves a chance late.
After coughing up a 25-9 Nuggets run to fall behind 90-68 in the third quarter, the Nets rallied.
The bench came in and disrupted defensively, forcing turnovers and reeling off a dozen straight to span the third and fourth quarters.
The Nets (13-25) mounted a 19-3 run to pull within 97-92 when Tyrese Martin found Reece Beekman for a 3-pointer with 8:18 left. But the starters came back, and Denver (22-15) pulled away.
“That group off the bench did a great job and we just couldn’t sustain it as a group when the other group came back in,” Fernandez said. “Obviously, you need a break, you need to bring guys back in. You cannot just play with five all the way through. And I understand not in rhythm, whatever it is, but we need more urgency and more focus to get back in and get that going.
“So, I’m proud of the guys, the effort, the resilience getting back into the game. We were not good enough. We did not deserve it. And we’re going to have to watch film and work and be better.”
With the Nets’ lineup decimated, they got a team-high 22 points from Keon Johnson and 19 off the bench from Martin.
“A few mistakes compounded on top of each other towards the end of that stretch and they made it an even wider gap compared,” Keon Johnson said. “They opened that stretch up and took the fight out of us a little bit.”
Ben Simmons — playing for the first time since New Year’s Day in Toronto — registered 10 points and seven assists. But he had just two points and three assists after a strong first quarter, fading late.
“Play with pace. That’s it,” Simmons said. “Got stops. Rebound the ball. Keep them off the line. Yeah, Keon did a good job pushing the ball.”
“Yeah, I just don’t think we kept that pace up. You know, we had spurts where we did it and we looked good, and the ball’s moving and guys are driving. Then spurts where we weren’t pushing the ball, they were getting easy buckets and kind of deflated us. It slowed us down.”
It was fittingly Johnson who hit a corner 3 to pull the Nets within 101-95 midway through the fourth. But they conceded a 16-5 run to fall behind 117-100 with 2:48 left in regulation. There were no more rallies.
“We were closing up possessions on the defensive end. It was getting a few stops that led us to get out in transition. That was really the game that we knew going in we’d be able to get our money, getting stops and running out in transition,” Johnson said. “But once we weren’t able to get those stops and we were fouling on the defensive end, it just slowed us down on that offensive rhythm.”
Denver, just 2-3 without Jokic, improved to 20-12 with him. And the Nets’ lottery positioning improved as well.
They moved out of a tie with the Trail Blazers and into the sixth-best odds in the draft lottery.
The Nets play at No. 5 Utah and No. 7 Portland on this road swing that could prove pivotal for draft positioning.
