Nets Nic Claxton knows he must cut down on flagrant fouls

Nic Claxton should be leading the league in blocks, or Defensive Rating, or something like that.Not in flagrant foul points.The Nets paid Claxton to be the anchor of their defense, and the past month is a reminder that he has that kind of talent.

But in Wednesday’s 129-121 loss to the Thunder — the best team in the Western Conference — there he was in street clothes and serving a suspension for the kind of silliness Brooklyn simply can’t afford.And Claxton knows it.“We’ve had those conversations, private conversations.

He held himself accountable and to a really high standard,” Nets coach Jordi Fernández said of his talk with Claxton.“We’re going to miss him [Wednesday] night, and that’s what’s most important.

We’re missing one of our players and we need him.So he already knew.

It’s not that this was not new for him.”Which is exactly the rub.Claxton — who just got a four-year, $97 million contract over the summer — has been praised by Fernández as a potential Defensive Player of the Year.And it’s his play on that end lately that sparked Brooklyn to winning seven of their last 10 entering Wednesday’s game against the Thunder.

But these flagrant fouls aren’t new.Just worrying.Claxton has accrued an unacceptable six flagrant points this season, the latest coming on his Flagrant 1 Foul for pushing Justin Champagnie in the back with 9:24 left in Monday’s 107-99 loss at Washington.“We lost our composure, and we were not good with whatever happened with a flagrant and a technical and all that stuff and a foul before the ball gets inbounded,” Fernández said.

“All those things are a lack of focus, and that’s not the team we want to be.”And while the play wasn’t dirty or malicious, it was clear.And avoidable.

Even the other Nets had to concede that was a Flagrant 1.“As a teammate, no; but looking at the rule books, it’s kind of obvious,” Keon Johnson said.“But that’s just part of learning and growing wit...