In what was an exciting Game 3 between the Milwaukee Bucks and Brooklyn Nets, the Bucks gutted out an 86-83 victory over the Nets after being down 0-2 in this series.
Yes, you read that right by the way, 86-83. For Brooklyn this was unusual. They haven’t had a game where they hadn’t scored in triple digits since March when they fell 88-118 to the Utah Jazz.
In this one the scoring wasn’t the only way that the Nets were playing out of character. To start off the game they missed their first nine shots. This led to more iso ball than Head Coach Steve Nash would have liked. However, this is natural when shots aren’t falling because guys get more determined to make sure that ball goes in the hoop, let alone it being in the playoffs.
As a result of this iso ball Brooklyn didn’t seem to be too concerned with ball movement. In games 1-2 of this series they averaged 26 APG, but only dished out 15 in Game 3.
“I think we got some good looks. I think we rushed a couple opportunities there,” said Kevin Durant. “But I like how we clawed back into the game but I hate how we started off that way. I wish we would have made a couple more plays down the stretch.”
Another result of the out of character offense was efficiency. In games 1-2 the Nets have averaged 49.5% FG and 44.2% 3FG. In Game 3 they shot 36.2% FG and 25% 3FG.
On the Bucks side of things their performance didn’t really look too different in Game 3 vs. the prior two (in terms of statistics).
In this series Milwaukee has averaged 51 RPG, 17.5 APG, 44.3% FG and 24.8% 3FG.
In Game 3 they grabbed 56 rebounds, dished out 12 assists, shot 37.8% FG and 19.4% 3FG.
With that being said this one was more about what Brooklyn did wrong instead about what Milwaukee did right.
However, in that 4th quarter, both teams struggled to get shots to fall, and neither even put up 20 points.
As we all know Brooklyn is offensively gifted, so the likelihood of them having this same type of game twice is unlikely, but Milwaukee certainly has the momentum in their favor now going into Game 4 on their home court.
Tune in Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on ABC to see who capitalizes on what happened in Game 3.
