CHARLOTTE – Except for a stretch in the fourth quarter of a game that never should have gone to overtime, the Nets were offensively inept. In the extra session, the Nets returned to executing terribly.

They are a maddening team for their coaches and fans. They came back from 16 down in the fourth -– the Nets didn’t score more than 16 points in each of the first three quarters –- only to lose 91-84 to the Bobcats Friday night.

Nets coach Avery Johnson came out of the locker room saying to “praise the fourth-quarter comeback,” but then ripped Brook Lopez.

Some of us covering this game thought Johnson might go after everyone after this performance. But he chose to applaud the overall fight the Nets showed on a night when they couldn’t shoot straight and let Lopez know he’s far from being an elite center.

This was a bad game all the way around for everyone involved. Lopez was the natural scapegoat, especially since the Nets needed more from him with Devin Harris out. Lopez grabbed just two rebounds -- both offensive boards -- on a night when 117 field goals were missed. And Lopez didn’t help his cause by leaving without talking to reporters.

It was reminiscent of last season when the temperamental Lopez would leave the locker room after bad games or after being forgotten in the offense in the second half under then-coach Kiki Vandeweghe.

But Johnson said plenty about what Lopez didn’t do to let you know that the coach is not happy with the player he called a cornerstone before the season started.

“We could have died in the fourth quarter,” Johnson said. “You look at our guys. We come back fierce. We didn’t really have that much energy tonight. But they dug down and found something.

“Lo and behold we get them to miss two free throws and we do not get the defensive rebound on a free throw, on a free throw, the same thing that happened to us in Sacramento.”

That last part was directed at Lopez.

It wound up not hurting the Nets because Travis Outlaw stole the inbounds pass and made two foul shots with 9.2 seconds left to tie the game. But Johnson wanted to make sure Lopez knew that it’s bad enough that happened to him once this season and now it happened twice.

In the overtime, the Nets predictably unraveled as they missed their first 10 shots. This is their second straight loss in extra periods. They fell, 123-120, Wednesday to Oklahoma City in triple-OT when late execution and some Lopez mistakes hurt them.

As we said, this one was a brutal game for all the Nets. They missed 62 of 91 shots. Only Derrick Favors, who was 2-for-4, shot 50 percent in this game. Everyone else was either 6-for-18 or 7-for-18 or 3-for-10 or 1-for-5 or 0-for-4.

You are going to have nights when you miss shots, but you can’t compound it by not getting rebounds, especially when there are so many to be had. The Bobcats missed 55 shots themselves. But the rebound margin was 14 -- the Bobcats grabbed 62 caroms, the Nets 48.

Across the frontline, Charlotte starters Boris Diaw, Gerald Wallace and Nazr Mohammed pulled down 40 boards, 11 of them on the offensive end. The Nets’ starting frontcourt totaled 16 –- the same number as Diaw –- and four offensive –- matching Diaw and Mohammed.

“It was from the start,” Johnson said. “It was ridiculous from the start. Did they have eight offensive rebounds in the first quarter probably? When that happens and our center gets zero defensive rebounds that’s not pretty and he’s very aware of it.

“We’ve got to do a better job of team rebounding, but you’ve got to rebound your own position. I’m not going to be able to get out there and hold your hand every time. You’ve got to rebound your own position. That’s very disappointing.”

Lopez took the brunt of this loss understandably, but there was plenty of blame to go around. It never should have gone to overtime anyway, but that was Charlotte’s undoing.

The Nets gave the game back to Charlotte in overtime.

They’re still learning how to play in close games. They’ve been in so many through the first 20 games that they should know how to finish them off. But the last two games have shown they don’t. Not just Lopez, all the Nets.

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Coach’s Corner

“Energy. I thought our lack of legs affected our offense. But again, look at our team. That’s why I keep telling you guys this is a team I’m proud to coach because they’re fighters. Hopefully sometime this year we’ll win some of these overtime games and we’ll have somebody step and make a play for us in overtime like some of the other teams are getting from some of their players. We’ll keep getting in position. We’re going to keep playing hard.”

- Johnson on the woeful shooting

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Follow me on Twitter: @Al_Iannazzone

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Al Iannazzone covers the Nets for The Record (Bergen County, N.J.)