The Nets’ 13th different starting lineup of the season worked wonders against the Bucks Friday night.
After coach Jason Kidd swapped Paul Pierce and Shaun Livingston into the starting five for Mirza Teletovic and Alan Anderson, the Nets responded by playing well and breezing to a 104-93 victory over the hapless Bucks, leading virtually wire-to-wire and by double digits for most of the second half.
Livingston, in particular, played well, finishing with a team-high 20 points to go with five rebounds and six assists playing next to Deron Williams in a two point guard lineup.
“It’s a combination coach is getting a look at,” said Pierce, who finished with 12 points, four rebounds and three assists, of Williams and Livingston. “I thought it was a good combination. They both really played well off each other.
“We went small, tried to spread the court and use our shooting and driving and it worked for us.”
The Nets got big boosts from both Teletovic and Jason Terry off the bench. The two combined to go 9-for-14 from 3-point range and scored 19 and 14 points, respectively. The Nets went 12-for-26 from behind the arc — including making their first six of the game.
The Nets opened their lead over the Bucks (6-23) to as many as 23 early in the fourth quarter, before the Bucks made a run to cut it down to single-digits on a pair of free throws from rookie Giannis Antetokounmpo (who finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Bucks in both categories) with three minutes remaining. A Teletovic 3-pointer pushed the lead back to double-figures for good.
The game also marked the first time this season the three players acquired in the blockbuster trade with Boston this summer — Pierce, Terry and Kevin Garnett (10 points) — each finished in double-figures.
Forward Andrei Kirilenko sat out for the 25th time this season — and missed his 24th in a row — as he continued to remain sidelined because of a recurring case of back spasms. He wasn’t expected to accompany the team on its three-game road trip that begins Saturday night in Indianapolis.
“I think there’s still some uncomfort there,” coach Jason Kidd said after Friday’s morning shootaround. “Just from [Friday] morning, hearing he went through some stuff but just wasn’t quite ready to go yet.”
Kirilenko was considered the bargain signing of the entire NBA this summer, to the point at which teams pushed the league to investigate whether there was some kind of backroom deal between Kirilenko and the Nets’ Russian owner, Mikhail Prokhorov — an investigation which found no evidence of such a deal. After inking a one-year, $3.2 million pact with a player option for a second year, Kirilenko has spent almost the entire season as a spectator to the Nets’ spectacular flameout thus far.
He initially suffered the back spasms following the second game of the preseason Oct. 12 against Detroit, and then sat out the final five preseason games as well as the season opener Oct. 30 in Cleveland. After making his debut at home Nov. 1 against the Heat, Kirilenko played in the next three games before sitting out the second half of the Nets’ overtime loss Nov. 8 in Washington, and hasn’t played since.
The Nets had said Kirilenko was targeting a return during this three-game Christmas week homestand, but obviously that did not come to fruition.
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In addition to Kirilenko, the Nets also were without Andray Blatche, who will also miss the upcoming road trip, due to personal reasons.
Blatche, who had been the only Net to appear in the first 28 games of the season, broke his streak of 110 consecutive games since signing with the team before the 2012-13 season.