Frustrated at the referees, frustrated at the opposition and frustrated at themselves for letting the game slip away.
For about 30 minutes the home side played some pretty good basketball but fell apart down the stretch to lose to the Manawatu Jets 94-75 at the Edgar Centre on Saturday night.
The 19-point margin was not a true reflection of the match. The scores were tied 61-61 with 10 minutes remaining but the visitors piled on 33 points in the final period, having exhausted what was left of some patchy Nuggets' defence.
Centre Nick Horvath won the battle of the big men with an impressive performance. He top-scored for the Jets with 24 points and grabbed 13 rebounds.
American guard Josh Pace also had a good night with 22 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
Akeem Wright led the Nuggets with 25 points and 10 rebounds, and Mark Dickel was inspirational with 19 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. But he fouled out with two and a-half minutes remaining and then gave up a technical foul, after remonstrating with the referee.
The Jets converted all four shots from the free-throw line to stretch their lead to 83-71.
With the fight won, Zeke Meehl drilled two three-pointers and Kaine Hokianga also found his range from the outside.
The Nuggets slip to 2-3 and the Jets improve to 3-1.
Nuggets captain Dickel was quick to blame some poor defence for his side's loss.
"We just didn't defend very well," Dickel said.
"We didn't help each other particularly well out there and we rushed at them a little bit on offence. It is not a coaching issue, it is a playing issue. The players have to work it out for themselves on court.
"The Jets were more desperate to win and that is more disappointing to me. I don't care about the loss because you're going to lose sometimes. But they won because they wanted it that little bit more and that is frustrating."
"We've got to find a way to turn it around so we can go down to Southland and get a win," Dickel said, referring to the next match in Invercargill on April 4.
The Jets had the better of the initial exchanges, taking a 21-13 lead into the first break. But Wright and Antoine Tisby started to get some traction on the inside and dominated the second quarter. Tisby made a nice drive to the basket and, despite the attention of Horvath, got the shot to drop, drew the foul and added the extra.
He had been kept quiet in the first quarter but added nine in the period in a haul of 17 points.
Wright brought the 1600-strong crowd to its feet with a series of exciting dunks. He got on the end of a superb pass from James Ross and slammed it down one-handed. He showed some shooting skills too, hitting the Nuggets' first three midway through the second period. The Nuggets outscored the Jets 29-18 and took a three-point lead into halftime.
Otago stretched its lead to nine points with a promising start to third quarter but a damaging eight-point run to the Jets signalled trouble ahead for the home team.
• Nelson Giants veteran Phill Jones reached the 6000-point milestone and made two free throws to seal a 99-97 overtime win over the Southland Sharks.
Trailing by 20 points at the end of the first half, Nelson outscored the Sharks 50-30 to force the first overtime of the season, Jones hitting a three to force the extra period.
The Harbour Heat made it two straight with an 82-78 win over the Taranaki Mountain Airs.
NBL
The scores
• Manawatu Jets 94
Nick Horvath 24, Josh Pace 22
• Otago Nuggets 75
Akeem Wright 25, Mark Dickel 19
Quarter 21-13, halftime 39-42, third quarter 61-61
