VIDEO RECAP – FINAL: #Nets 80 – #Raptors 96
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The Brooklyn Nets lost to the Toronto Raptors by a score of 96-80 in Toronto.
It was Drake night in Toronto so the rap star did the starting lineups for the PA announcer and held a mini concert at halftime.
The Nets used their 17th different starting lineup coming off their big double-overtime win against the Heat with Mason Plumlee playing for a resting Kevin Garnett for the tilt with the Toronto Raptors.
The beginning of the game was downright ugly for Brooklyn as they got out-rebounded 16-9 and gave up five offensive in the opening quarter alone which put the Nets down 24-18 after one. The shooting percentage told the story with the Nets shooting 40 percent to the Raptors 38 percent.
Four steals by Raptors in a minute and a half had Brooklyn down 34-23 with 8 to play in second. The Nets got a 13-4 burst behind Mirza Teletovic’s back-to-back 3-pointers with just under two minutes left in second to help Brooklyn scratch and claw back into the game an only be down 47-42 at half. Rebounding edge was the key for Toronto as they dominated the glass 27-21 and grabbed a whopping nine offensive rebounds.
Nets opened the third quarter with new energy and went on a 14-1 run behind two Paul Pierce 3-pointers and two Alan Anderson 3-pointers to take the lead 56-48. Toronto missed its first six shots of third and the Nets extended the run to 18-3 for their first double digit lead at 60-50.
Raptors then fought back and went on an 11-0 run to end the third to lead 68-64 going into the fourth quarter.
The fourth quarter seemed to be one more quarter than the Nets wanted to play and their effort and lack of gas showed and they went over nine minutes of game time without recording a field goal. The Raptors went on an extended run of 18-0 spanning the end of the third quarter and beginning of the fourth. The Raptors built the lead to 10 point at 74-64
Jason Kidd waived the white flag and pulled his starters with four minutes left and the Raptors went on to snap Brooklyn’s win streak at five games with a 96-80 win.
Pierce scored 15 points for the Nets, while Anderson and Joe Johnson scored 13 and 11 points, respectively.
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“We will see them again,” said Paul Pierce, who led the Nets with 15 points. “I think we’ve got them a couple of more times. Right now, they’ve earned the right to be where they are at. They’ve played well since the [Rudy Gay] trade. They are a really deep team.”It’s just one of those things where I think fatigue really set in for us, didn’t really have quite the depth.
We didn’t have Kevin. Of course, you already know about the injuries. A lot of things were against us tonight, and we still had a chance there until the end of that third quarter. They sort of went on a run and kind of fed off the crowd and put the game away.”
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KEY STATS: Toronto held a 49-39 lead in rebounding and grabbed 16 offensive rebounds.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: DeMar DeRozan had a game high 26 points and seven rebounds for the Raptors.
NEXT UP: The Nets will be back in action on Thursday when they fly across the pond to play the Atlanta Hawks on London at 3:00. The game can be seen on YES and NBATV.[/box]
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