RALLY'S HURTS
Nets nearly stun mighty Bucks before comeback bid gets rejected
MILWAUKEE — The Nets had withstood a makeshift lineup and their worst shooting drought in a decade as the fourth quarter wound down Thursday night. But a huge Brook Lopez block of Day’Ron Sharpe — and a challenge that didn’t go their way — proved too much to overcome.
With most of their starters sitting, the Nets rallied from a huge deficit before losing 118-113 to the league-leading Bucks before a sellout crowd of 17,341 at Fiserv Forum.
After double-digit wins in their last three game, the Nets were without starter Nic Claxton, Spencer Dinwiddie and Cam Johnson, as well as minutes leader Royce O’Neale. Their reserve-heavy lineup went nearly 5 ½ minutes without a basket in the first quarter, conceding a 19-0 run by the Bucks (48-18) from which they never fully recovered.
The Nets (37-29) missed 15 straight shots — with a shotclock violation thrown in for good measure — as an early eight-point lead turned into an 11-point first-quarter deficit. The Nets hadn’t missed that many consecutive shots since they were playing in New Jersey and missed 16 straight at Orlando on March 16, 2012, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
The deficit swelled to 22 in the second quarter, and though the Nets fought back to get within two points, at 99-97, with 5:03 left in the game on a Dru Smith pull-up, they never got over the hump.
Sharpe had a potential tying dunk attempt with 4:31 left blocked by Lopez, who initially was whistled for a foul. Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer challenged the call, however, and it was overturned.
“Yeah, interesting,” Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said. “I guess they went to the review and we also had a little review also. So, interesting call.”
Cam Thomas, who scored 14 of his 21 points during the fourth-quarter comeback, was stunned the call was reversed, which took away Sharpe’s chance to tie the score from the free-throw line.
“Yeah, for sure. That was crazy. I didn’t understand that one,” Thomas said. “But it is what it is. the refs made a call, they called it so you’ve got to live with it.”
After Thomas made a running layup to cut it to 112-110 with 46.3 seconds to play, Lopez, who finished with 24 points, 10 rebounds, and a career-high nine blocks, punished his old team (for which he is the all-time leading scorer) with a huge tip-in with 30.6 seconds left that essentially served as the dagger.
Even without former MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Bucks held the Nets to 39.2 percent shooting from the floor, and did just enough.
Patty Mills scored a team-high 23 points for the Nets, who got 98 points from players who started the game on the bench.
Antetokounmpo, who had been dealing with a non-COVID illness, was ruled out Thursday due to right-hand soreness. And the Nets got off to a quick start, with Mikal Bridges’ 3-pointer spotting them a 13-5 edge with 8:53 left in the first.
Little did they expect they were going to miss 15 straight shots. Seven of those were lowvalue looks in the midrange, exactly where they didn’t want to be operating. Jrue Holiday’s fadeaway left the Nets down 24-13 with 4:46 left in the quarter, and they never reclaimed the lead.
By the time Sharpe broke the drought on a tip dunk with 3:20 remaining in the first, Milwaukee had control.
The deficit grew to 46-24 on a running 3-pointer by Bobby Portis, who had a game-high 28 points, with 9:21 to go in the half. To that point, the Nets were just 9-for-34 from the floor, while the Bucks has gone 12-for-21 ... from deep.
But the Nets had some fight left in them, pulling out a 3-2 zone and getting a spark from Mills and two-way Smith, who had 11 of his 17 points in the third quarter in which the Nets outscored Milwaukee 33-22.
The Nets cut the deficit to 87-80 going into the fourth and got within three twice: on Thomas’ 3-pointer with nine minutes left and Yuta Watanabe’s layup with 6:39 to play.
Smith’s pull-up cut it to 99-97, but Sharpe’s dunk attempt was blocked, and the Nets never pulled even.
“Yeah, [Lopez] has consistently done it,” Vaughn said. “At the half we had 20 midrange shots, so that was way too many. And we talked about that. And so the decision is how are you going to attack him at the rim, bring him over? Sometimes you’re able to finish at the rim. Sometimes you’ve got to pass that thing.
“We had difficulties a little bit. We had some low passes that didn’t work. … But he’s been dominant for them on the defensive in the flow and he was [Thursday] night.”