Nets fail back-to-back test in loss to short-handed Pistons

DETROIT — The Nets failed their first back-to-back test of the young season.

After smothering the high-scoring Rockets on Friday at home, the Nets rallied but fell short, 113-109, to the injury-riddled Pistons on Saturday night.

Detroit didn’t have Blake Griffin, Reggie Jackson or Derrick Rose, but apparently didn’t need them. After digging themselves a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit, the Nets rallied to get within one on Kyrie Irving’s driving layup that made it 108-107 with 17.4 seconds left in regulation. But there was no overtime and no winning rally.

Stunningly taking forever to chase the Pistons down and foul, the Nets let Detroit bleed the clock until finally sending Luke Kennard to the line with 8.4 seconds left, and he hit both. Spencer Dinwiddie subsequently made just one of two, leaving Nets down by a pair.

Andre Drummond — who dominated the Nets as usual with 25 points and 20 rebounds — sank one of two to give Detroit a 111-108 lead with 6.7 seconds to play. And when Taurean Prince (20 points, 5-of-8 from 3-point range) missed the second of two foul shots and Drummond snatched yet another rebound, it was over.

The Pistons center fittingly iced it at the line. Saturday marked his fourth 20-20 night of the season, while the entire rest of the NBA combined has just one — by the Lakers’ Anthony Davis. Drummond wore out Brooklyn again, and the Nets had no answer for him.

Irving had a triple-double with 20 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. But the Nets gave Detroit a parade to the free-throw line (the Pistons were 23-for-29), coughed up a late 27-6 run to fall behind and made too many mental errors, underscoring how far they have to go.

“Just playing a lot of games honestly. Some success, some failures. Just going throughout the season being able to communicate with your guys,” Irving said. “We play so many games. You want to have your teammates be in a certain point at one point or you have a certain principle that you use on another environment that’s worked or something that you learned over time.

“[But] the true essence of being connected and synchronized is just really giving each other a chance to make mistakes and just learning from them and go forward.”

The Nets trailed 19-7 after letting the Pistons hit seven of their first eight shots. They struggled on both ends, with Jarrett Allen getting blocked by Drummond not once, but twice on the same sequence.

The Nets did respond with an extended 37-18 run to grab the momentum in the middle of the game.

It started as soon as DeAndre Jordan — who got the start in an attempt to counter Drummond — sat down and the Nets brought on Allen and Garrett Temple. That helped the Nets climb back into the game, reeling off a quick eight-point run when Drummond sat.

After the Nets had coughed up 33 points and 60 percent shooting in the first quarter, they smothered the Pistons to just 13 points on 4-for-21 shooting in the second. They took a 54-46 edge into the locker room and padded it to 64-50 on a Prince 3-pointer. But they couldn’t protect that lead.

The Pistons mounted a 27-6 run to go ahead 77-70 on Kennard’s jumper with 43.5 seconds left in the third. Typical of the Nets’ evening, Dinwiddie finally got to the rim to break the drought, then got whistled for a technical foul to hand Detroit a cheap free throw with 3.9 seconds remaining in the period.

Consecutive baskets by former Knick Langston Galloway and Tony Snell — who hit a long 3-pointer — Snell gave Detroit a 91-78 lead that proved insurmountable.

The Nets tried to channel some of that comeback gene that last season’s squad exhibited so often. They cut it to 101-98 on a Dinwiddie drive, and Joe Harris’ wing 3-pointer pulled them within 105-103 with 1:33 remaining in regulation.

Irving got them within one, but they never got over the hump.

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