Nets still struggling with allowing late leads to slip away

The Nets are a young team that has learned how to compete.

But they still don’t know how to win.

That’s going to be a tough lesson.

Nobody has blown more fourth-quarter leads than the Nets, their 18 such collapses coming into Saturday’s rematch in Indiana — a 108-103 loss notable for a late Nets rally that fell short — tied for the league high, or more accurately, the league worst.

It was a rematch because they fell 105-99 in overtime on Thursday in a game that they appeared to have in the bag.

That is, until they got rattled, lost their composure, and lost a lead they’d held almost all evening.

“I think we made it happen, honestly,” admitted D’Angelo Russell, who missed Saturday’s rematch with right ankle soreness. “[We had] a lot of things going our way except for shots falling. But for us as a group, I think we had everything that we needed to get that win.”

The Nets led by as many as 11, and were ahead 84-77 after Russell’s layup with 4:55 to play when the wheels came off.

After a bucket by Indiana’s Bennedict Mathurin, Trendon Watford got into it with Andrew Nembhard and Myles Turner, drawing two technicals and an ejection.

It proved costly, but figuratively and financially.

Watford got fined $35,000 by the NBA on Friday night.

But the Nets had already paid for his ill-advised shoves, clearly thrown off their game down the stretch in Thursday’s defeat.

“That’s just the level of intensity that you’ve got to rise to,” Russell said, “It’s not the playoffs, but it’s a playoff environment. We’re a young group trying to get there, so as a group to be able to handle our emotions throughout those moments, don’t let them get the best of us at any point in the last five minutes of the game.”

But that’s exactly what happened, the young Nets losing their poise.

And they lost Watford, who’d been arguably their most effective player.

He got tossed with 15 points, four rebounds and a team-high plus-8.

“Yeah, I don’t know what they had going on. I was telling Wat you’ve just got to be smart, we need him out there. So I’m not a fan of it, to be honest with you,” Ziaire Williams said. “So, it’s all a learning lesson. You’ve just got to be smart, and like I said, just got to watch film.”

What the film will show is a team that got outscored 28-15 in regulation and overtime from that Pacers bucket and Watford ejection.

On offense, a Nets team that had been fairly clean with just 11 turnovers in the first 44 minutes coughed the ball up five times in the final nine minutes.

And a defense that allowed .418 percent shooting got burnt for 54 percent the rest of the way.

“I thought we had the game won at times where we just had to focus on us, and we easily got distracted by a little momentum, a few calls. We got a little low on it. They came down with some high energy and just answered and responded,” Russell said. “So for us, finding a way to win games, not beat ourselves.”

The Nets have blown the second-most leads (45) and third-most leads of at least 10 points (15).

Much of that can be chalked up to inexperience.

They’re exceedingly young with an average age of just 24.8 years old.

The only teams younger are Portland (24.5), Oklahoma City (24.7) and Utah (24.8), with Washington (25.1) right behind.

All but the Thunder are at various stages of painful rebuilds, with the Nets in Year 1.

“We really value the day-to-day work and what this group is doing, and this is just the first year right now. It’s been very positive,” coach Jordi Fernández said. “We’ve gotten better, and it doesn’t stop right now. So like we always said, winning starts now. Whatever that win means for us, that can stay in the locker room or in the organization; but it’s very important that we’re not wasting any time.”

Russell and Williams (right hamstring tightness) were out Saturday, along with Cam Thomas, Reece Beekman, Tyson Etienne, Tosan Evbuomwan, De’Anthony Melton and Dariq Whitehead.