PORT OF FALL
Bridges, Nets blow late lead in crushing loss to Trail Blazers
The Nets are turning crunch time into losing time, blown leads into an art form. And this one was a heartbreaker.
Brooklyn blew a fourth-quarter cushion and got beat by Anfernee Simons’ dagger, 105-103 before a crowd of 17,021 at Moda Center.
They led by as many as 11 points, and by four with a minute-and-a-half left. But they let the Trail Blazers close on an 8-2 run — capped by Simons’ seven-foot jumper with 0.2 seconds left.
Mikal Bridges, who briefly had been forced out of the game with a leg injury but came back to finish with 21 points, was on Simons calling for help. But Spencer Dinwiddie was slow to come over on the double, and Simons got the winner.
The Nets (16-24) have dropped 14 of their last 17, and started this three-game West Coast road trek in horrible fashion.
“I told the guys its not just one play that sums up the game. Its an accumulation of plays,” Jacque Vaughn said. “They were able to get to [the offensive glass], 16 second chance points. So it’s the plays that happen in the first second, third and fourth quarter. We were going to double Grant or Simon. Give him credit good move to get to the rim and finish.”
After getting outscored 8-2 in the last minute-and-a-half of overtime to lose to Miami on MLK Day, they repeated the failure two nights later.
It obscured some positive signs. Dinwiddie had 19 points and seven assists to break a skid. He came into Wednesday a staggering minus-90 over his prior seven games. He had averaged just 3.3 points and three assists on 3-of-15 shooting over his last three. But after a scoreless, one-shot first half in Portland, he finally showed some signs of getting downhill and getting in sync in the second.
But it didn’t matter. Jerami Grant had 30 points and seven boards, and helped Portland take over late.
For some perspective on where the Nets are defensively, just take in these numbers and let them marinate for a bit.
Portland came into the night dead last in the entire league in: Points. Shooting. Offensive Rating. Effective Field Goal Percentage.
Pretty much anything that relates to scoring, or offense, or putting the ball in the basket. And the Nets couldn’t stop this team down the stretch.
Clinging to a 57-56 edge, the Nets coughed up an 11-3 run, including the last five unanswered.
Portland guard Malcolm Brogdon sandwiched a 3-pointer and a short four-footer around a missed Bridges attempt from behind the arc.
It left Brooklyn in a 67-60 hole they had to work to clamber out of.
Things nearly went from bad to catastrophic shortly thereafter. Bridges got clipped on the right leg by Jabari Walker, near the shin. He went down in clear discomfort, and after being helped up he gingerly limped off the court with 4:27 left in the third and Brooklyn down 70-69.
After a pair of Scoot Henderson free throws moments later left the Nets trailing by three, they made their most important run of the night.
With Bridges being worked on by trainers, Brooklyn reeled off 14 straight points to go up 83-72
Dinwiddie started the spurt with a steal off a bad Scoot Henderson pass and breakaway dunk. He added a 3-pointer off a Cam Thomas feed to give Brooklyn a 79-72 lead. Dinwiddie earned a trip to the line and calmly sank both to put the Nets up by nine with 1:37 left in the third.
Thomas capped the run at the stripe, putting the Nets ahead by 11 with 12.6 seconds in the period. But the Nets have shown a penchant for blowing leads, and didn’t close this one out easily.
Up 86-78 early in the fourth they coughed up seven unanswered to see their lead sliced to one on a Simons layup with 8:31 left to play.
After Dinwiddie made just one of two free throws, a Grant 3-pointer erased the lead altogether. The rest of the evening was back-and-forth.
Trailing 95-94 after Simons free throws, Nic Claxton threw down a thunderous dunk. And Dinwiddie followed with a huge 3-pointer to make it 99-95 with 2:29 to play.
The Nets saw Portland pull even at 101-all on a jumper with 54.3 seconds left. And after Bridges missed a wild driving layup, they failed to put a body on Grant and let him sail in for an uncontested putback with 9.7 seconds to play.
Cam Johnson’s hesitation — and shooting prowess — let him drive past a hard-closing Grant. He got downhill for a tying layup with just 5.2 seconds left in regulation.
But Simons won it.