In the Nets’ first-round playoff opener, they snatched home-court advantage from the 76ers. Thursday in Brooklyn, they gave it right back.
With everything lined up in their favor — their first home playoff game in four years, and not having to face Joel Embiid — the Nets laid an egg in a 131-115 Game 3 loss. Before a sellout crowd of 17,732 at Barclays Center, they lost the home-court advantage they worked so hard to get.
“Shout-out to our fans, said D’Angelo Russell, who shared team-high scoring honors with 26 points. “They did a great job of keeping us in it with their energy. We’ve got to do a better job of doing our part.”
The Nets got hammered on the boards, shredded on defense and dumped into a 2-1 series hole after wasting a golden opportunity.
“The last two games we haven’t found a solution to stop them. We’ve got to go back to the drawing board to find something that’ll work,” said coach Kenny Atkinson, who will mull lineup changes for Saturday’s Game 4.
“Yeah, we’ve got look at everything. It starts defensively, we’ve got to look at lineups. Good thing it’s only 2-1, come back Saturday and you get a win it’s a different series. But we have to look at some different things. Obviously the last two games it’s definitely not working.”
Nothing worked in Monday’s Game 2 loss, when the Nets allowed an NBA playoff record-tying 51-point third quarter. And little went right Thursday.
The Nets had caught a huge break when Embiid — who averaged 30 points and 14.3 boards against them this season — was ruled out with a sore knee. But the Sixers had more than enough to handle Brooklyn.
After Jared Dudley had ruffled feathers by calling Ben Simmons “average” in the half-court, the All-Star guard shrugged off constant boos and had 31 points, nine assists and shot 11-of-13 shooting.
And after the Nets had put the clamps on JJ Redick in their Game 1 win, the Sixers set crunching screen after crunching screen to free him for 26 points on 5-of-9 shooting from 3-point range.
And no longer relegated to fourth-option status with Embiid out, Long Islander Tobias Harris showed why he will be high atop the Nets’ free-agent wish list with 29 points and a game-high 16 rebounds.
“Our crowd did a wonderful job. It’s up to us to come through for them,” said Spencer Dinwiddie, who had 15 points.
“Both Games 2 and 3 have had their disappointing aspects to it. Obviously we would’ve liked to have capitalized and go up 2-0, but we dropped the ball in the third quarter of that game. This game, the rhetoric is going to be that we should’ve capitalized with Embiid out. That’s fine, too. We know what we need to do.”
The Nets need to shoot the ball better, after going a horrid 8-of-39 from deep.
They have to move the ball better, handing out just a dozen assists as the long-armed Sixers blew up their offense.
And they absolutely must rebound better, after getting crushed 54-43 on the glass by a team that was missing its center and could have him back for Game 4.
“Their shooting percentage was way too high, they’re getting to the free-throw line, offensive rebounding,” Dudley said. “So literally we didn’t take one thing away.”
After taking an early 9-4 lead, the Nets promptly surrendered a 25-10 run they spent the entire evening trying — and failing — to recover from.
Brooklyn trailed 34-24 early in the second quarter when Caris LeVert started to percolate. He scored the Nets’ next 14 points to personally drag them within 40-38. He finished with 26 points to match Russell’s total.
But they trailed 65-59 at intermission, and fell behind 94-76 on Redick’s free throws with 2:53 left in the period.
Still down 97-81 after Redick’s 3 with 1:17 left in the third, the Nets closed with a 9-0 run. Russell’s 3 pulled them within 105-99 with 8:36 to play, but that’s as close as they got.