Nets 97 – Bucks 94

Joe Johnson started where he left off hitting the first two shots he took. Brandon Jennings continued his hot shooting from Brooklyn and nailed his first five buckets  for 11 quick points.   Turnovers once again a problem for the Nets and they got down 17-8 with six minutes to play in first.  The shooting by Brooklyn was miserable to start at 5-for-20 while the Bucks shot 10 of their first 15.   Energy level was low for the visiting Nets.  Mirza Teletovic made an early appearance with 1:30 left in the first. Ersan Ilyasova led the Bucks with 10 points and Milwaukee ran out to a 20-21 lead after one.

As usual the Bench Mob started the second and the horrible shooting continued.  The Bucks are outscoring  the Nets 12-2 in the paint at this point. The ball was very stagnant and not moving at all. Bucks lead grew to 35-23 before CJ Watson hit two more of his corner three to start 3-3 from deep.   Somehow still shooting 30 percent with  five to play the Nets hung around 41-37.  Balanced scoring or lack thereof for Brooklyn as Watson led the Nets with 11 points.  Jennings crushed the Nets again with 18 points at half while Brook Lopez was lost and went 2-10 for five points and one rebound. Bucks led 53-42 at half behind 62 prevent shooting while the Nets shot 32 percent from the field and 29 percent from three.  BAD HALF

Same story different quarter. Nets could not find the ocean and the only consolation to the bad shooting was that they got the Bucks in foul trouble.  Gerald Wallace threw down a big dunk and hoped to spark the Nets to a run down 63-52.  Careless turnovers by Milwaukee kept Brooklyn in the game midway through the third.  Jennings continued to haunt the Nets and was still 9-9 for 23 points with five to play in third.  PJ brought in Andray Blatche again for Lopez and it paid dividends with his hustle, defense and timely scoring.   The Nets hung around and were down 76-68 behind an atrocious 36 percent shooting.

[quote_box]PJ on the bench – We were hanging on by our fingernails in the first half and the bench came in and gave us a great lift. Got us back in the game. Clearly in the second half, CJ and Andray were unbelievable but Hump gave us some very good minutes along with MarShon. All six or seven of the guys.[/quote_box]

Inexplicably the Nets started the final quarter on a 11-0 run to take a 79-76 lead behind the Bench Mob.  MarShon Brooks had seven of those points.   The momentum change was big and the Nets seemed quicker to the ball and made multiple stops on the defensive end.  Blatche having a huge game on both ends grabbed his 12th rebound to go with his 12 points and put the Nets up 89-81 with three minutes left.  Williams came back and got a big assist and hit a three to seemingly put the game away 94-83 with two to play. Not the case as Nets fans know as the Bucks went on an 9-0 run to close it 94-92 with less than a minute to play.   Watson drive and made the play of the game to put the Nets back up four with .15 left.   Williams split a pair of free throws to put the Nets up 97-94 with 3.4 to go and then had a brain cramp and fouled Monta Ellis while shouting a three. Ellis luckily missed all three free throws and the Nets come back to win 97-94.

Brooklyn STOLE this game from Milwaukee with a 29-18 fourth quarter.  Williams ended with 23 points, eight assists and one huge brain cramp late in the game.  The bench scored a massive 47 points to lead the Nets to this victory.

GAME CHANGER: MarShon Brooks opened the fourth quarter with seven quick points and helped the Nets go on a 11-0 run to regain their first lead since 6-4.

STAT OF THE GAME: The Nets  are now 11 games over .500 for the first time since 2006.