The Nets looked like an offensive juggernaut through the first two games of their series with the Bucks, averaging 120 points in Brooklyn to take a commanding 2-0 series lead.
But that offense withered in game three, with Brooklyn shooting just 36 percent from the floor in an 86-83 loss to put Milwaukee back in the series.
The defense remained status quo to the rest of the series, but for the first time this series, the Nets looked like they were sorely missing James Harden, who almost certainly would have helped Brooklyn’s lowly 25 percent shooting from 3-point range in game three.
“We can always improve on the defensive end, but it was a really solid game,” head coach Steve Nash said. “We gave ourselves a chance because of our defense. Our offense just couldn’t keep up tonight. We were basically a bucket or two short. We’ll have to clean up the offense, but the defense was pretty solid, and it’s going to have to continue to be solid.”
Despite a poor shooting night overall, the Nets were in position to take a 3-0 series lead after Kevin Durant broke an 80-80 tie and drilled a contested 3-pointer with less than 90 seconds to go, but Brooklyn couldn’t find a basket the rest of the way.
“Sometimes that’s the name of the game,” Durant said. “Both teams played incredible defensively. Both teams played extremely hard…it was one of them grind-out games…they just hit a couple more shots than we did.”
Milwaukee’s offense still struggled to find a rhythm against the Nets, shooting just 38 percent from the floor and 19.4 percent from downtown, but weathered Brooklyn’s comeback bid and made the clutch shots when they needed them, including Jrue Holiday’s go-ahead layup with just over 11 seconds to go.
“We had our chances down the stretch,” Kyrie Irving said. “It was a possession-by-possession game, both teams battling. That’s a good, old-fashioned playoff game right there.”
Many Nets fans clamored for Irving or Durant to take the shot in those chances down the stretch, but instead, Bruce Brown missed a jumper with 20 seconds left, then missed a driving layup with 6.4 seconds to go, where a basket would have given the lead back to Brooklyn. But the Nets are looking ahead to game four on Sunday, knowing they still have the advantage in the series and came just short of a win on the road, even after a putrid shooting night.
“We all know that we want Kevin and Ky to shoot the ball, but if they don’t get free, they’ve got to make the right play,” Nash said. “So, they made the right play. You give some credit to the Bucks. Still, we got some makeable looks. We can get better at executing, we can get better at handling those moments, and it was a great test for us tonight and I think it was a lot for us to learn from.”
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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