THAT WAS...
19-point underdog Nets shock Bucks
Donta Hall dunks during Nets’ stunning 119-116 win over Milwaukee Tuesday at Disney World.
The Nets were supposed to get a one-sided caning. What they got — no make that earned — was the biggest NBA upset win in over a quarter-century.
Facing the league’s winningest team in the league — and doing it without arguably their top nine rotation players — the Nets scrapped their way to a feisty 119-116 win over Milwaukee on Tuesday at ESPN Wide World of Sports.
“We talked about as a group the symbolism of bamboo, being extremely resilient and extremely flexible and adaptable. [This] was another example,” interim coach Jacque Vaughn said. “We had to be all of those three things with the different lineup.”
Undersized and outmanned, the gutted Nets — sans Caris LeVert, Jarrett Allen and Joe Harris — went in as 19 ½-point underdogs. But rather than fold, they fought — and came out with the largest upset in the league since April 6, 1993.
“We’re trying to win. We’re not going out here to just mess around or have moral victories: We’re trying to win a game,” said Garrett Temple, who had 19 points.
As the only member of the entire early season rotation that played Tuesday, he fittingly hit the dagger step-back jumper for a three-point
Nets lead with 7.3 seconds left.
The Nets also got a career-high 26 points from Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, including a pair of huge 3s in the late game-deciding 8-0 run. It flipped a 110-107 hole into a fivepoint cushion on his clutch jumper with 2 ½ minutes left.
But perhaps just as important was the fearless edge they got from center Donta Hall. The rookie threw his body around in the paint and Giannis Antetokounmpo to the ground, even getting into it with the MVP. The Nets fed off his aggressiveness early and late.
“You like seeing that. I loved Donta’s energy. … We talk about dictating and being aggressive: All those things were needed,” Vaughn said.
“Amazing. … He helped us grabbing rebounds, defending our paint and making sure nobody would come in and take our money. He wasn’t scared of anybody, and that was great for everybody,” Luwawu-Cabarrot said. “He led us by example.”
The Bucks were essentially at full strength, minus only Brook Lopez and Wes Matthews, and jumped ahead 11-4. But the Nets closed the first quarter with ten unanswered points for a 40-34 lead.
With the Nets up 42-37 on a jumper by Jamal Crawford — who left moments afterward with a hamstring injury — Hall and Antetokounmpo grappled for a rebound. The rookie tossed the reigning MVP to the ground, with the two having to be separated and Antetokounmpo seemingly yelling he would “f--k him up.”
The Nets took an eight-point lead into halftime, with Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton sitting the second half.
The Nets led 100-90 before the Bucks responded with a 17-4 run, capped by DJ Wilson’s left corner 3. That left the Nets down by three, and they still trailed 110-107 with 3:56 after Brown’s 3.
But after Chris Chiozza made a reverse to get them within a point — and the Nets forcing misses from Kyle Korver and Brown — he found Luwawu-Cabarrot for consecutive 3s to give the Nets a 115-110 edge they never surrendered.
“Tim did a great job. He came ready to play. He was aggressive early, got a lot of good looks and he was able to knock ’em down,” Chiozza said.
The Bucks got within 117-116 on Donte DiVincenzo’s layup. But Temple calmed down the Nets and orchestrated the last possession, icing it with a jumper off Chiozza’s 10th assist with 7.3 seconds left. Jeremiah Martin pestering DiVincenzo on the last play made it official.
“This is very big for our confidence,” Temple said. “We may see them in the first round so we were coming in looking to make a statement.”