Game 2 Loss Gives Nets Road Split

Of the four times the Brooklyn Nets met the Toronto Raptors, three of those games were decided by small margins in the final seconds. So when Coach Jason Kidd’s squad drew the Raptors in the first round of the playoffs, he knew they would be in for a battle that often came down to the wire.

That was the case on Saturday, when the Nets used some clutch heroics by Paul Pierce to escape Game 1 with a 94-87 win. It was the case again on Tuesday night, as the Nets and Raptors locked in an intense battle that came down to the final minutes.

However, this time, Brooklyn could not get the clutch shots down the stretch to fall, and instead it was Toronto that emerged victorious, 100-95, to tie the series at 1-1.

Afterward, Coach Kidd compared the two games, and noted that the Nets got what they expected in both games.

“We knew going into this series it was going to be tight games, one or two possession games. Whoever can execute and score or get the stop is going to win that game,” Coach Kidd said. “The game was a one-point game coming down the stretch. We had a great look by Paul, it goes in and out. Tonight, Toronto executed. They scored and got the stops. In Game 1, we scored and got the stops.”

The Nets got the game off to an ideal start, carrying the momentum from Game 1 into the opening minutes of Game 2 and thanks to two buckets each from Kevin Garnett and Joe Johnson, jumped out to an 8-1 advantage.

However when Paul Pierce got his second foul less than four minutes into the game and had to take a seat on the bench, the game took a turn in favor of the home team. Raptors big man Jonas Valanciunas dominated inside in Pierce’s absence, tallying eight points as Toronto went on a 20-7 run to pull ahead by seven, 21-14, with just under a minute and a half left in the quarter.

The Nets were able to close strong on a pair of free throws from Deron Williams and a trey from Mirza Teletovic but still trailed 21-19 at the end of the first.

After making just 36.8 percent of their attempts from the field in the first quarter, Brooklyn’s shooting woes continued in the second frame. The Nets went just 8-for-21 from the floor (38.1 percent), and 2-of-7 from beyond the arc.

But thanks to some tough defense they hung in the game. Kidd’s team forced 10 turnovers from the young Raptors squad. In addition, Williams held his counterpart Kyle Lowry to just two points in the half.

The defensive effort made it so that, despite a shooting percentage of less than 40 percent in the half compared to Toronto’s 44.7 mark from the floor, Brooklyn was very much in the game, trailing by just six, 45-39, through one half of play.

J-Kidd’s team finally found a shooting groove early in the third quarter and went on a quick 8-0 run to tie up the game less than three minutes into the second half.

This has been a huge run to open the second half for the Nets. Exactly what they needed.

— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) April 23, 2014

Rhythm much better 2nd half

— NetsDaily.com (@NetsDaily) April 23, 2014

From there, Brooklyn set its sights on the lead, and a Johnson three with 6:11 remaining in the third gave the Nets their first advantage since midway through the first frame. Brooklyn managed to extend that advantage to five points with less than three minutes to go in the quarter, but Toronto battled back and cutting the visitors’ lead to 66-64 going into the final 12 minutes of regulation.

Though they clung to just a two-point lead at the end of it, the third quarter was perhaps the brightest spot in Tuesday’s game for the Nets. After struggling with their shooting for much of the first half, Brooklyn found the bottom of the net at a 52.9 percent clip in the third, and outscored the Raptors 27-19.

Coach Kidd gave his starters rest to start the fourth so they would be reenergized come crunch time. Meanwhile, Brooklyn’s bench went basket-for-basket with the Raptors in the early stages of the fourth. But Toronto coach Dwane Casey went back to his starters just a few minutes into the fourth to turn the tide.

After Lowry sank a layup that put Toronto up by one, Alan Anderson committed an offensive foul, prompting Jason to do the same with his starters, as Garnett, Johnson and Williams all returned to the game at the 6:18 mark.

The move paid almost immediate dividends as Williams found Andrei Kirilenko for running dunk, then grabbed a rebound and dished to Pierce, who hit a running jump shot and drew contact. He converted the three-point play at the free throw line, which tied the game at 83-83 with 3:48 to go.

But Toronto was buoyed by the efforts of All-Star Demar DeRozan, who bounced back from a 3-of-13 performance in Game 1 to score a game-high 30 points in Game 2, including 17 points in the fourth on 4-of-5 from the floor and 9-of-11 shooting from the free throw line.

After Lowry and Garnett traded buckets to tie the game at 85, DeRozan hit two of the most difficult shots of the night back-to-back. His twenty-foot pull-up jumper over Pierce put the Raptors up two, and after a miss by Pierce, DeRozan came up with a fade-away from the free throw line over Johnson to put Toronto up four with 2:10 to go. That big bucket forced a timeout from Coach Kidd, who complimented DeRozan’s game-changing performance afterward.

“He was great,” Jason said of DeRozan. “He made every shot. He made his free throws, so he was great.”

After a pair of Garnett free throws pulled Brooklyn back within two, Lowry split the lane for a layup to push the Raptors lead back to four. As a whole, Toronto shot 75 percent from the field in the fourth, but as Coach Kidd mentioned postgame, the Nets still had their chances

After a 1-of-2 trip to the line from Patrick Patterson, Pierce put took the ensuing Nets possession into his own hands, dribbling the length of the court, then breaking down his defender from the wing for a drive, during which he also drew contact. The three-point gave Brooklyn some life, putting it down just 92-90 with under a minute to play.

On the ensuing Raptors possession, DeRozan turned the ball over — Toronto’s 21st turnover of the game — setting Brooklyn up with a chance to tie or take the lead. Coach Kidd called a brilliant play that featured a series of screen designed to get Pierce open.

The play worked to perfection, as Williams found a wide-open Pierce on the left wing, but the star forward missed the mark and the Raptors pulled down a rebound with under 24 seconds on the clock. DeRozan closed out his dominant performance by sinking 6-of-6 at the line in the final 20 seconds to seal the Toronto win.

Even in a disappointing loss, Jason expressed little distress, as Brooklyn had done its job by winning one on the road to nullify Toronto’s home-court advantage for the series.

“We’re right where we want to be. We had an opportunity to take the lead late in the game and we came up short,” Coach Kidd said afterward. “
[Paul] had some great looks. It’s basketball. Sometimes they go in, and sometimes they don’t. He made the three-point play, the table is set and he gets a wide-open three. It happens. There are a lot of positive things that we’ve done in these first two games. Now we’ve got to go home and protect home.”

Garnett echoed similar sentiments.

“They did what they’re supposed to do, defend home,” Garnett said. “It’s time for us to go home and do the same.”

NEXT UP

The veteran Nets will once again benefit from two days between games as they wait at home for Friday’s Game 3.

Among the areas Coach Kidd hopes to see the Nets improve in on their home floor is rebounding. After losing the Game 1 rebound battle 45-37, Brooklyn was dominated on the glass in Game 2, 52-30, including 19 offensive rebounds for Toronto, which led to 16 second chance points for the Raptors.