ATLANTA — All through his first camp as an NBA head coach, Jordi Fernandez has demanded fight and toughness.
In his regular season debut, Fernandez’s Nets might have shown too much fight and toughness, and too little finesse and technique.
Undermanned and underdogs, the Nets momentarily lost poise and then lost, 120-116, to the Hawks before a sellout crowd of 17,548 at State Farm Arena.
“I loved our physicality. We’ve been talking about the Brooklyn grit, right? You saw it out there with 32 fouls. The only thing is, we’ve got to be smarter. Our technique has to be better. We have to lead with our chest and show our hands,” Fernandez said. “I’m not arguing any of our calls and free throws. We have to be better. But our guys played hard.”
That’s been the baseline of a training camp that’s been physical.
The Nets — projected to win a league-worst 19.5 games — carried that edge over into an opener where they were a shorthanded six-point underdog.
Yet they led late in the third, and trailed just 90-89 with 8:22 left.
That’s when they gave up a 12-3 run — aided by a pair of ill-advised fouls by Cam Thomas (game-high 36 points, 20 in the fourth quarter) and Nic Claxton, the latter a Flagrant 2 that got the center ejected.
It marred the debut of Fernandez, the first Spaniard to become an NBA head coach and just the third European.
In truth, the performance wasn’t victorious but it was solid.
After all, the Nets are tanking.
But they also want to develop the youth they already have, and there were encouraging signs.
Thomas is the third player in NBA history with multiple 35 point or more outings in season openers before turning 24.
Second-year player Jalen Wilson had 16 off the bench.
Claxton — who came off the bench after missing the entire preseason — was tossed for a foul on Dyson Daniels, a borderline clothesline after which the Hawk got off the floor and went after him.
It was one of 32 fouls the Nets committed, sending Atlanta to the line 46 times compared to just 25 times themselves.
Thomas shot 14-for-27 and 7-for-13 from deep to tie a team record, but took just one free throw.
“We just got to just calm our physicality down a little bit. In training camp we were real physical and that’s how we want to play. But we’ve got to be a lot smarter, 46 foul [shots] is crazy. … We all have to be smarter, including myself,” Claxton said.
“Just showing what we’ve been preaching, playing physical, getting up into guys. But we got to have a controlled physicality,” Thomas said. “At the end of the day, whether we feel like they were right calls or not, 46 free throws is kind of unacceptable. So we’ve just got to learn how to play more controlled with our physicality, and we’ll be really good.”
And play crisper, with point guards Ben Simmons and Dennis Schroder combining for 11 turnovers, with Simmons having to start at center again.
The Nets shook off a slow start, and a 13-4 hole by reeling off nine unanswered.
Trailing 35-31 after a dunk by Onyeka Okongwu (28 points), Brooklyn used a 10-0 run capped by Dorian Finney-Smith’s layup to go ahead by six.
But Finney-Smith picked up his fourth foul just seconds before the break, and Simmons his fourth with 6:59 left in the third clinging to a 64-63 edge.
The lead didn’t last.
Trae Young (30 points) drove all the way for a go-ahead layup on the next play.
The Nets got a go-ahead Noah Clowney bucket, but Daniels’ 3-pointer put Atlanta ahead and Brooklyn never led again.
“I want to win every game, because at the end of the day what you want is to create winning habits,” Fernandez said. “What can we correct that is our controlables that would’ve helped us win? Right now, to me it’s leading with your chest and show your hands, and then finishing possessions.
“Stepping back, looking at this game, very special. Very special for my wife, for my kids, for my parents, for everybody that’s been with me during the journey. Extremely honored and proud to be where I am, and very proud of the guys because they played really hard.”