The Nets lost Kyrie Irving. And they lost Game 4. And, just perhaps, they lost control of the Eastern Conference semifinals, all in one bloody Sunday.
After Irving went down with a sprained right ankle, the Nets lost 107-96 to the Bucks before a sellout crowd of 16,310 at Fiserv Forum — a defeat that could shift the momentum of the second-round series, and possibly the balance of the NBA championship.
“Of course, it’s always deflating when one of our guys go down. But like we always have been through the year, it’s next man up,” Nets big man Jeff Green said. “They went on a run and we just didn’t bounce back. There’s no excuses.”
No excuses, but also no fight. Or at least not enough, as the wind clearly was taken out of the Nets collective sails by the injury.
The crowd chanted “Bucks in six! Bucks in six!” with the Nets trailing by 15 in the fourth quarter. After the Nets have lost Irving, James Harden (right hamstring) and now consecutive games in this series, who could blame them?
The Nets not only had been the heavy betting favorites to win the title, but also looked poised to run away with these conference semis after routing Milwaukee by 39 points in Game 2 at Barclays Center — a defeat Pat Connaughton admitted embarrassed the Bucks. But now they’re locked in a 2-all tie after being admittedly rocked by Irving’s injury.
Giannis Antetokounmpo dunks over Blake Griffin during the second half of the Bucks’ Game 4 win on Sunday. Getty Images“Of course. I hate to see anybody go down. Injuries suck,” Green said. “The timing was a little rough. But like I said before, it’s just next man up.”
But the Nets are rapidly losing some of their most important players, with two-thirds of their Big 3 sidelined in the biggest games of the year. Harden has been out with a right hamstring injury he suffered just 43 seconds into this series.
Kevin Durant did his share Sunday, with a team-high 28 points and game-high 13 rebounds, but he was inefficient. And no other Net even cracked double-digits aside from Irving, who departed with 11 points after spraining his right ankle with 6:04 left in the second quarter.
When Irving went down — after landing awkwardly on Giannis Antetokounmpo’s foot following a layup — he’d just cut the Nets’ deficit to 44-40. After the injury, however, the stunned Nets coughed up a 22-10 run that spanned halftime and put the game out of reach.
“Maybe that was in play a little bit,” coach Steve Nash said. “We just didn’t execute very well, and that was the gut punch.”
The Nets need to get off the deck before Game 5 on Tuesday at Barclays Center.
Antetokounmpo finished with a game-high 34 points and added 12 boards, while Khris Middleton scored 19 points and Jrue Holiday had 14 points and nine assists.
Durant, meanwhile, paid dearly for every point. He shot 9-for-25 and just 1-for-8 from 3-point range, largely bodied and beaten up by P.J. Tucker. While Nash deemed it borderline physical non-basketball, Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer predictably pushed back.
Kyrie Irving was ruled out for the rest of the Nets’ Game 4 with a right ankle sprain. Getty Images“He’s just guarding him,” Budenholzer said. “If that’s not basketball, I don’t know what is.”
The Nets did jump out to a quick 9-2 lead, and the game went back-and-forth initially. The Nets were within striking distance at 56-50 when Durant found Green for a driving hook shot early in the third quarter. But that’s when the Nets went ice-cold and gave up a 10-0 run to lose contact.
During that stretch, the Nets missed six straight shots and committed a turnover. That got Antetokounmpo and the Bucks out on the break, with a driving layup by Holiday making it 66-50.
The clock read 6:50 left in the third quarter, but the contest was essentially over. In Game 3, the Nets had rallied from 21 down to take a late fourth-quarter lead. But that was with Irving on the court. His injury left the Nets stunned.
“Obviously we lost a great player during the game, which was tough,” Nash said. “We didn’t play particularly well. We had a pretty good start; we dropped a little bit. They got going on some transition breakdowns, they started to get some 3-balls and offensive rebounds, some 50-50s, got a little separation at half. Then we struggled in the second half.
“So, we missed him, obviously. It was a big adjustment to play without him and James. But we’ve had that type of year. We have to figure it out.”
