In what was arguably the biggest upset in the bubble thus far, the extremely shorthanded Brooklyn Nets came out on top against the league-best Milwaukee Bucks 119-116 on Tuesday.
They are now 2-1 in their first three of eight seeding games.
Coming into this one, they Nets were massive underdogs according to the spread. As most people already knew coming into the bubble, the Nets would be missing seven key players, so any success they had would be as a result of playing with house money. Tuesday’s matchup solidified that when news broke that Brooklyn would be without Caris LeVert (left thigh contusion), Joe Harris (lower back tightness) and Jarrett Allen (load management).
Now why would they sit the walking double-double Jarrett Allen for load management when trying to keep the 7th seed and avoid a play-in tournament? Your guess is as good as mine.
However, even without those three important pieces the Nets were able to get it done with a dominant team effort.
Six players scored in double digits, led by Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot scoring 26 points and going 5-7 from behind the arc. He’s been playing great for them as of late and has been getting progressively better all season.
The two keys to success for Brooklyn were ball movement and taking care of the ball. They dished out 30 assists, which is above average for them. They also only turned the ball over seven times, half of their season average.
Quite frankly besides these two things, one might have expected the Nets to lose if they looked at the stat sheet.
Brooklyn got outrebounded 50-68, were less efficient from the field and from behind the arc, got outscored in the paint 32-48. Lastly, they were pretty handsy defensively, committing 26 fouls to Milwaukee’s 19.
Despite all of that though, Brooklyn was able to get it done with their team ball style of play and aggressiveness. Even Chris Chiozza scored a double-double off of the bench with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
In addition to this being an actual victory this had to be a moral one as well as Brooklyn is making this playoff push and took out the league’s best team (record wise).
Featured Articles
Featured Writers
