The new-look Nets are trying to figure out how to play together. They lost Tuesday night to a group of champions who already have shown they can win together.
The rebuilding Nets looked good in stretches, but the white-hot Bucks were great when it counted. The Nets took a big lead, but couldn’t hold on to it, and lost 118-104 to Giannis Antetokounmpo and company before a sell-out crowd of 17,732 at Barclays Center.
The Nets built a 15-point cushion late in the first quarter, and they led by 10 with 6:47 left in the third quarter. But Antetokounmpo had seven of his game-high 33 points during a 27-9 blitz that spanned the end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth to sink the hosts.
“Yeah, we just weren’t there,” said Mikal Bridges, who led the Nets with 31 points. “We weren’t in our shifts, not getting back as hard. And then Giannis got going, got to the line, got the and-ones and dunking and got them going. So we just got to get back, have that mindset coming out. … They dominated the second half, but it started with us in that third.”
The Nets (34-27) lost for the third straight game, and for the fifth time in six games since they traded Kevin Durant to Phoenix. They’re a game behind the Knicks, which they will play Wednesday at the Garden, for the fifth playoff spot in the Eastern Conference and are now just 1 ½ games ahead of seventh-place Miami and in danger of falling into the dreaded play-in.
The Bucks reeled off their NBA season-high 15th straight win to improve to a league-leading 44-17. And they did it behind a dominant Antetokounmpo, who was coming back from a quad injury and looking every inch an MVP.
He had a game-high 15 rebounds, added four assists and hit the 12-foot fadeaway that capped the game-changing run. That basket put the Nets in a 93-85 hole just 30 seconds into the fourth quarter, and they never recovered.
“The third quarter, Giannis picked up aggressiveness and lived at the rim. Our collective activity level didn’t march his aggressiveness. He turned the tide of the game, took over. I mean we went from up 10 to down seven,” said Spencer Dinwiddie, who had 26 points, eight assists and six rebounds, but was among a host of Nets who were helpless before the Bucks star.
“I don’t think there’s many players in the league that can guard him one-on-one. Obviously we’re not necessarily the tallest team in the world or the biggest team in the world. We’ve just got to build that wall and our activity level has to be extremely, extremely high to try to force turnovers and be active. … But yeah, he turned it up a notch and we didn’t match it.”
Dinwiddie hit a pull-up 3-pointer to give the Nets a 28-13 lead with 3:06 left in the first quarter.
But the Bucks were cruising through the opening half in third gear, while the Nets were going full throttle. Milwaukee’s starters played just 68 minutes in a relaxed first half, while the Nets’ starting five logged a hefty 93 minutes. That was a clear indicator of how much Nets coach Jacque Vaughn wanted to win this one.
“When I came back from the break, I told our group there’s 24 games that we have left. We’re going to take each game extremely serious and try to win each game. So wasn’t really concerned about this being a back-to-back,” Vaughn said. “Played those guys heavy minutes to try to give ourselves a chance in the first half. But you give Milwaukee credit for responding.”
After the Nets took a 62-52 lead at the break, the Bucks stormed out of the locker room with a 12-2 run to open the third quarter. Brook Lopez tied the score at 64-all with a 3-pointer.
It was 66-all when the Nets ripped off 10 unanswered points, a Bridges 18-foot pull-up making it 76-66 with 6:47 in the third.
But the Bucks reeled off that 27-9 run to put it away. The Nets shot just 3-for-13 in a costly ice-cold drought. Meanwhile, the Milwaukee went 12-for-16, including 7-for-8 in the paint and 4-for-4 at the rim.
And the Nets ran out of gas down the stretch.
