The game was over at the sound of the opening whistle as the Bucks defeated a disinterested Nets team 109-94 on Sunday afternoon at the Barclays Center. The Nets showed signs of life after a lackluster start against the Milwaukee Bucks, who gave Brooklyn their seventh loss in the last 10 game, despite closing a 28 point deficit.
From the opening whistle, Milwaukee scored six straight points, prompting Nets coach Kenny Atkinson to call a timeout with 10:39 left in the first quarter. While Brooklyn came out of the timeout with a spark, they quickly found themselves down for the remainder of the quarter, which ended with the Bucks up 36-22.
“I don’t understand how that happened—I am a little upset with our group that we weren’t more ready mentally and physically,” coach Atkinson admitted during his postgame conference. “Against this team, as athletic as they are, as talented as they are, as long as they are—you have to be ready from the get-go and I’m very disappointed in that.”
The Bucks (29-23) defense, length, and athleticism certainly caused problems for the Nets (19-35) who found themselves down 62-41, while shooting a lowly 36.2 percent from the field in the first half.
While Milwaukee surely dominated on both ends of the floor, Brooklyn helped give them their first quarter lead after getting into early foul trouble.
“Overall as a team we foul too much, we just do, and in the first quarter I think they took 11 free throws—that was part of the avalanche in the first quarter,” continued Atkinson.
The Nets continued to send the Bucks to the line but Atkinson’s first assessment of the loss seemed to be the most accurate, and the same sentiment was felt in the locker room after the game.
“It’s a number of things, but overall it’s the level of compete—we didn’t come out the way we needed to,” said Nets forward Joe Harris after the game. “Whether it was them being active defensively, contesting shots, getting out on transition or second chance opportunities, they set the tone early.”
In the third quarter it was a new story for Brooklyn, who made a 31-19 run, cutting their deficit down to nine after Milwaukee took a commanding 71-43 lead. The Nets comeback effort was led by second year guard Caris LeVert, who finished the game with 15 points on 6-7 shooting and has continuously helped pulled the Nets out of holes throughout the season. Rookie center Jarrett Allen was also a bright spot scoring 14 points and grabbing seven rebounds, making this his seventh straight game scoring in double figures.
Nevertheless, Milwaukee outmatched Brooklyn in every turn and despite a comeback effort by the Nets they were ultimately too much on both ends of the floor. Not only did the Bucks control the glass, out rebounding the Nets 54-36, but they added 7 blocks and forced the Nets to shoot a unimpressive 41 percent for the game. On the other end other floor the Bucks were just as efficient shooting 52 percent from the field and 42 percent from behind the three-point arch.
For the Bucks it was Bledsoe who led the way with 28 points on 12 of 20 shooting, while John Henson absolutely dominated the paint with 19 points, 18 rebounds and three blocks. Superstar forward Giannis Antetokounmpo finished with 16 points, and eight rebounds, before twisting his ankle in the fourth quarter.
The Nets, who find themselves on the bottom half of the eastern conference, have been able to compete with some of the best teams in the league but against the Bucks it was an embarrassing display despite their comeback effort.
With their next five games against playoff-bound teams or teams fighting for a spot in the postseason, Brooklyn has to bring a different level of effort otherwise they may find themselves at the very bottom of league standings.
“We all have to look in the mirror like men and have a certain focus and compete level from the beginning,” starting point guard Spencer Dinwiddie recognized. “We have to play better team defense, we have to finish our team defense with rebounds and do a better job collectively and individually.”
