Nets blow big lead, fall in OT
INDIANAPOLIS — The Nets couldn’t build on Friday’s win over the Wizards — their best victory of the season — and were beaten by the Pacers yet again.
After the victory against Washington, the Nets blew one of their bigger leads of the year in falling 123-119 in overtime to Indiana before 17,107 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Saturday.
The Nets flushed a 19point lead and fell to the Pacers for the third time when Spencer Dinwiddie (career-high 26 points, teamhigh eight assists) missed the potential winning 3pointer with four seconds left.
“I don’t like it,” Nets coach Kenny Atkinson said. “That’s part of it that sticks in your craw. It should be hard to beat a team three times in a row. We’re looking for more. We need to make that next step where we’re coming away the ‘ W’ in this game.”
It’s hard to say whether the Nets lost it or Indiana (19-14) smacked them in the face and took it. The Nets gave up a game-high 38 points to Victor Oladipo, who heard chants of “MVP! MVP!” and certainly looked the part.
The Nets led 54-35 in the second quarter on a stepback jumper by Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (18 points, eight rebounds) and led by 16 at the break. But they got outscored 28-11 to open the second half, roughed up and thrown out of sync.
“They came out more aggressive, putting their hands on us, being physical,” said DeMarre Carroll, who scored 20 points and grabbed a career-high 13 rebounds. “We were looking for the refs to call stuff, but the refs weren’t making the calls. We’ve got to understand we’re on the road, we’re a young team, we got no respect, so we’ve got to earn our respect.”
The Nets (12-20) led 84-82 early in the fourth but coughed up an 11-0 run to fall behind by nine.
“In the third quarter, they came out aggressive, punched us in the face,” Hollis-Jefferson said. “It was definitely a ‘ moment’ game where we didn’t take control, we didn’t focus and lock in on those moments. We kind of got comfortable. The blame is on that first unit. We should’ve done a better job of locking in.
“We know they’re going to play aggressive. Now how do we punch them back? How do we put our foot down, like enough is enough?”
The Nets tried to put their collective feet down and rallied to within 111-108. Then Dinwiddie got fouled taking a 3 and sank all three free throws with 19.9 seconds left to force overtime. But he didn’t find any silver lining in that.
“No,” Dinwiddie said. “You can learn from everything. You’d rather learn from wins. We played a great game, deserved to win this game in our estimation. They played a great game as well and got the win, so credit to them. But it’s always tough when you feel you really should’ve won the game.”
They had their chances to win. Dinwiddie knotted it at 114-all with a 3, and Carroll — who had hit a huge 3 in the final minute of regulation — stepped back and hit another to pull the Nets even at 119-119 with 46.7 seconds remaining in overtime.
But Oladipo’s free throws gave Indiana a 121-119 lead with 29 ticks left. And when Dinwddie went for the win and badly missed a contested pullup 3 with four seconds left, the game essentially was sealed. Oladpio made it official at the charity stripe with nine-tenths of a second on the clock.