Nets collapse late to fall against Hawks in latest heartbreaking loss

ATLANTA — The Nets have gone from suffering beatings to suffering heartbreakers.

From getting blown out to blowing late leads.

The Nets led almost all night here except when it mattered most, at the end. They suffered a 124-121 collapse before a crowd of 16,117 at State Farm Arena on Saturday.

After dropping their first five games, and looking in terrible disarray while doing so, the Nets (2-7) have played much better over the past week. They’ve split their past four games, but those two losses will stick in their craw.

They blew a fourth-quarter lead in the Garden before beating Charlotte on Wednesday. And they led the Hawks by 17, and by 114-110 with 1:45 left.

But they allowed a 14-7 run to close the game.

“It’s day-to-day work,” Nets coach Jordi Fernández said. “A lot of times, we’re thinking [of] magic solutions, but the reality is day-to-day work. And not being all over the place also helps. I mean, you can adjust things here and there, but I think that you have a plan that makes sense with the personnel that you have and then keep getting better.

“I’m happy with what I’m seeing and the commitment and playing hard, and now the communication is way better. It seems more like a connected group. We’re rebounding better, especially defensively. So, all those things are important. And it’s a testament to the work that the guys put in, the coaches, and getting 1 percent better every day.”

Michael Porter Jr. led the Nets with 25 points and nine rebounds. Day’Ron Sharpe had his first career triple-double with 12 points, a career-high 13 assists and 10 boards after having handed out eight dimes in Wednesday’s victory over Charlotte.

Nolan Traore had nine of his 19 points in the first quarter, but didn’t play in the fourth. Mikel Brown Jr. had 13 of his 18 in the final period.

Jalen Johnson had a game-high 30 for Atlanta, which stormed back to win.

“[Pace and space] prevents turnovers because when you’re in the right spot, you don’t run into each other. We’ve had those problems and it was pretty obvious in some of the moments where we had consecutive turnovers and it was for lack of organization, not running to our spots,” Fernández admitted. “And [Saturday] we’re going to face a lot of ball pressure. So if we can take care of the ball and get a shot to the rim, that’s just going to help.

“We’re going to see a lot of off-ball screens, a lot of movement, interchangeable positions. A lot of those guards they [have] do a great job at touching the paint, spraying the ball, shooting 3s, driving, offensive rebounding. They play small at times, but they still crash the glass and they get a lot out of it. But it starts with getting back in transition. They love to run, so we’ve got to make sure that we get back and we protect our basket and then we communicate. But I believe that if we can do those things, we’ll have a chance.”

They had a great chance, but squandered it.

Traore stormed out of the blocks with seven quick points to spot the Nets a 12-2 lead.

The bench helped pad it to 31-14 when Brown found Noah Clowney for a 3-pointer with 3:57 left in the first quarter.

Some shaky rebounding let the Hawks get on the offensive glass and cut that to 70-66 by the break.

After a Chaney Johnson layup put Brooklyn ahead 95-88 with a minute left in the third, six unanswered by Atlanta cut the lead to one.

It was one again at 99-98, but Brown found Julius Randle for a dunk to stanch the bleeding with 7:26 to play.

It was still 109-108 when Randle hit a turnaround with under three minutes left.

At 111-110, Brown’s clutch 3 gave them breathing room.

But that’s when they allowed the 14-7 run to blow it.

A Sharpe turnover handed the Hawks a 3. And after Sharpe missed a drive, Nickeil Alexander-Walker’s free throw with 1:26 gave the Hawks a 115-114 lead.

When Porter missed a 3-pointer, Alexander-Walker raced for a loose ball and a breakaway layup.