NEW YORK _ Talk about letting a victory slip away, the Nets did that in the most literal sense Monday night at Barclays Center. They blew a 16-point second-quarter lead with an unending series of ballhandling miscues in the second half that enabled the Wizards to pull out a 118-113 victory.
All told, the Nets committed 22 turnovers leading to 35 Washington points. The last mistake proved fatal. Trailing by three, Joe Harris allowed his pocket to be picked by John Wall with 11.9 seconds left. Moments later, Wall converted a pair of foul shots for the final margin to put the game out of reach with 5.5 seconds left.
Wall was sensational with 25 points and 13 assists, Bradley Beal and Otto Porter Jr. each added 18 points, and Markieff Morris had 16 for the Wizards (7-12). Brook Lopez led the Nets (5-15) with 25 points, Sean Kilpatrick had 21, Bojan Bogdanovic scored 18, and Trevor Booker contributed 14 points and 14 rebounds.
After squandering a 15-point halftime lead, the Nets trailed by six with just over nine minutes left to play but put together a 6-0 burst to tie the score at 93 when Harris made one of two foul shots with 7:50 left, and they finally regained the lead on a layup by Kilpatrick at 5:51 for a 100-98 margin.
The Wizards regained the edge on a 3 by Bradley Beal, and then John Wall stole the ball from Harris and drove for a layup and a 109-106 lead with 3:09 to play. Wall added a left-wing 3, and a Marcin Gortat layup gave the Wizards their biggest lead at 114-107.
Although the Nets were 1-9 in their previous 10 outings, they looked as good as they have all season in the first half. Kilpatrick had six points in a 16-2 run that gave the Nets their biggest second quarter lead at 64-48, and the margin still was 66-51 at halftime. By that time, the Nets were shooting 56.5 percent and had 17 assists on 26 baskets as they kept the ball humming in search of prime shots.
But as impressive as they were in the first half, the Nets reverted to their season-long problems in the third quarter. Washington came out and scored the first 10 points of the second half before Bogdanovic got the first Nets basket at the 8:29 mark. The Nets then got into a stretch where they committed turnovers on six of seven possessions to help the Wizards extend their run opening the third quarter to 28-8, including 10 points from Morris, to take a 79-74 lead.
Ultimately, the Nets only totaled 14 third-quarter points on 5-for-18 shooting, and they committed 10 turnovers leading to 14 points by the Wizards, who held an 83-81 lead heading to the final period.
