Coming off of a four-game skid that included their most lopsided loss of the season nine days ago, the same team they played yesterday, the Brooklyn Nets have extended their losing streak to five games, a season high.
However, they didn’t go down without a fight this time, falling 122-117 to the defending champion Denver Nuggets on Friday night at the Barclays Center in a hotly contested match that went down to the wire.
Despite a season-high-tying seven players scoring double figures for the Nets, they couldn’t get past the colossal duo that is Jamal Murray and reigning NBA Finals MVP Nikola Jokic, who both scored over 30 points.
The game started off a lot like how the last meeting between the two teams ended, with the Nets looking flat and sloppy. Michael Porter Jr. caught fire in the first three minutes of the game, scoring the first eight of the Nuggets’ 10 points, while Aaron Gordon had his way in the paint, eventually leading to an 18-7 lead.
Thankfully, the Nets stopped the bleeding after Day’Ron Sharpe and Dorian Finney-Smith entered the game, both of whom had big games off the bench, scoring 13 and 14 points.
With a steal from Sharpe and an assist to Mikal Bridges for an emphatic dunk that had the crowd roaring, the Nets were back in the game. Overall, Bridges had a pedestrian game offensively, finishing with 14 points on 7-16 shooting, missing all of his threes and lone free throw attempt and leading all players in turnovers on the night.
For the rest of the game, it was neck and neck, with the Nets eventually pulling ahead, taking a two point lead into the second half. The Nuggets didn’t shoot their first free throws until 1:17 left in the first half as the Nets defense played the offensive juggernauts well throughout.
Nic Claxton and Cam Johnson had a night themselves, shooting 50% from the field or better with Johnson hitting three of his six three point attempts and Claxton grabbing a career-high-tying 16 rebounds. Unfortunately, none of it was enough to exact revenge on the Nuggets.
Denver took the lead towards the end of the 3rd quarter and never looked back, with Jokic and Murray taking over the game in the fourth quarter as they usually do. The deficit was never larger than seven points and the Nets actually led for about 18 seconds in the fourth quarter but the dynamic duo had answers and then some for the home team.
Cam Thomas, who led the Nets in scoring with 23 points, shooting a woefully inefficient 8-21 from the field, made things quite interesting with 25 seconds left down five points when he sprinted up the court, launched a pullup three, got fouled and nailed the shot, making it 115-114 with the made free throw.
It was all for naught though as Murray drained a free throw on the other end, extending the gap to four points and ultimately leading to the final score, 122-117 for the Nuggets, dropping the Nets to 13-15 on the season and ninth place overall in the Eastern Conference.
Despite hitting what seems like rock bottom for the season so far, the Nets are not a lost cause by any stretch. It is yet to be seen whether Mikal Bridges can be the centerpiece of a team, but he is undoubtedly an all-star caliber player and the emergence of budding star Cam Thomas should bring a lot of hope to Brooklyn Nets fans.
The Nets face the historically atrocious 2-26 Detroit Pistons on Saturday at the Barclays Center.
