Nets top Bucks in high-scoring thriller
Nets head coach Steve Nash sees both sides like Chanel.
On one side, not only is it just the 13th game of the season, but his team is without Kyrie Irving (health and safety protocols) and still has to fill three roster spots. So while a game against Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Milwaukee Bucks — a team challenging for an NBA title just like Brooklyn — is certainly a measuring-stick game, it’s a game you take with a grain of salt being so early into the season.
nd yet this is a game against a Milwaukee team Brooklyn may very well see in the playoffs, one they’ll likely have to beat for the title that’s expected after the franchise traded away seven years’ worth of draft assets for superstar guard James Harden.
“I think we can still learn a lot from it. We can still compete, try and win the game, but our team will look different at some point especially with Kyrie back,” Nash said pregame.
Roster finalized or not, the Nets could not come out and lay a dud against a championship-caliber team they must beat in the playoffs for this season to be a success. A dud they did not lay.
The Nets downed the Bucks on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, 125-123, and they did so without Irving, who is ramping up his exercise regimen to get back into game shape before returning to the rotation, and without Spencer Dinwiddie, who is out indefinitely with a partial ACL tear in his right knee.
Harden and Kevin Durant answered the bell.
The pair of Nets superstars combined for 64 points, 18 assists and 15 rebounds, and Joe Harris turned in another 20 points, including 5-of-7 shooting from three-point range. It was Harris who hit a huge three with 1:05 to go in the fourth quarter that gave the Nets a 122-121 lead.
Antetokounmpo finished with 34 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists, with Brooklyn scheming defensively to let the Greek Freak shoot uncontested threes.
The reigning league MVP shot just 2-of-6 from downtown, and his co-star Khris Middleton scored 25 points, but missed all five of his attempts from deep.
Durant and Harden, meanwhile, steered the ship and hit big shots all night. This is why you go all-in on the stars. The Nets, without a premier playmaker in Irving, took down the East’s premier championship contender.
