On February 27, Beijing time, the NBA regular season Bucks sat at home to meet the Nets. This should have been a star-studded Mars-like duel, because Durant and Simmons' absence was a lot worse, and the paper strength of the two teams was not at one level, but the direction of the game was twists and turns. In the end, after four quarters of battle, the Nets narrowly defeated the Bucks 126-123, ending a three-game losing streak.
Although Durant continues to be absent due to injury, Simmons is also in the process of recovering the game, suffering from a back injury, and there is still a long way to go before he returns, but there are still many points to watch in this game. Because it is an away game, Irving can play with the team, and Dragic will also usher in the Nets career debut today, which makes people very much look forward to what kind of chemical reaction Irving will have with the new signings.
Nets coach Nash lined up his 34th starting lineup of the season: Irving, Seth Curry, Bruce Brown, James Johnson and Drummond. Facing the bucks with strong frontal strength, Nash put up a small lineup of 3 defenders, a lot shorter than the opponent in terms of size, and the inside line was held by Drummond alone.
In the case that Durant and Simmons can't play, Nash's platoon is difficult to balance defense and offense at the same time, and his choice is obviously more inclined to attack, he did not use Griffin to oppose the alphabet brother, but chose to be small.
At the beginning of the game, the Bucks took the lead in shining their swords, and Holliday's basket under the air relay exposed the problem of the Nets' poor basket protection. However, the Bucks did not grab the Nets' inside line and chase it hard, because their outside line today felt equally hot, and Portis hit three consecutive points on the outside line.
Contrary to the Bucks' outside feel, the Nets made it 1-of-7 from the outside in the first quarter. The first quarter ended with the Nets 25-32 Bucks. In the second quarter, the Bucks' outside feel was still hot, hitting 10 three-pointers in the half, while the Nets were still unable to find the outside line, with Irving's unreasonable singles (10 points in a single quarter), ending the first half with a 6-point disadvantage.
Easy to fight again, the Nets' small lineup finally reaped results, raining three points under the outside line, shooting 8 three-pointers in a single quarter, Curry Jr. scored 12 points in a single quarter, helping the team to play a wave of 17-2 attack waves to surpass the score, and the Nets once led by more than 13 points. It was still Portis who helped the Bucks through the crisis at the critical moment, and after the third quarter, the Bucks chased the point difference to 3 points, and the game returned to the balance.
In the final quarter, the Bucks had a chance to end the game, however, they did not use their stature to storm the box, but chose to shoot at the outside, in addition to sending a lot of unnecessary mistakes, constantly giving the Nets a chance. In the last 2 and a half minutes, the Bucks led by one point, Holliday missed two free throws, then the alphabet brother high difficulty Golden Rooster did not hit independently, and then there was a low-level mistake of passing back to the court! The Nets seized the opportunity, Bruce Brown's three-point shooter hit a heart-to-heart two points, helped the team regain the initiative, and then the game entered a penalty shootout, and in the end, the Nets won a thrilling victory.
Irving scored 38 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals on 14-of-26 shooting in the game, Curry had 19 points and 3 assists, Drummond updated 17 points, 12 rebounds and 5 assists, plus-minus +20 game-high, Brown also scored 15 points, and today Iron Tree Blossom hit 3 three-pointers. On the Bucks side, Alphabet Brother scored 29 points, 14 rebounds and 6 assists on 8-of-20 shooting, and Portis cut 30 points and 12 rebounds, they were too superstitious about the feel of the outside line, and there were many bizarre mistakes, and finally lost a good game.