Bucks 86
Nets 83 MILWAUKEE -Kenyon Martin was back from his two-game suspension. He strengthened the Nets’ defense early. He carried the offense late.
And it wasn’t enough. Martin couldn’t do anything about the benches.
“One thing about those guys over there,” Byron Scott said of the Bucks, the NBA’s hottest home team, “when they bring their bench guys in, their intensity level goes up.”
And so Martin’s 15th double-double of the season, a 24-point, 10-rebound gem in his first game in nine days, became merely a nice footnote after the Bucks turned to their second unit to overcome a double-digit deficit. And when the wheels fell off the Nets’ offense at key moments, Milwaukee went on for its 10th straight Bradley Center victory, 86-83.
“I got aggressive. We weren’t shooting the ball particularly well,” said Martin who dumped 14 of his points in the fourth quarter -but also picked up four fouls in the final four minutes and fouled out with 52.2 seconds to go. “I was trying to take the ball to the hole, maybe get fouled or get a good look. Just came up a little short.”
The Jersey bench came up a lot short as the Bucks’ reserves outscored the Nets’ subs, 48-24. And the Nets’ second unit was on the floor for a good part of a 25-6 third-to-fourth quarter Milwaukee spree that turned a 57-47 Nets advantage into a 72-63 Bucks bulge.
“[We] made a bunch of mistakes on the defensive end, allowing guys to get too many easy good looks,” Scott said with a sigh. “And we just didn’t do a real good job running our offense.”
After a .308-shooting first half against a ferocious Nets defense, Milwaukee (22-17) pulled even to start the fourth quarter, 58-58. Then the Bucks brought down the sledgehammer with a 14-5 spree that featured a pair of 3-pointers by Toni Kukoc (team-high 17 points).
The Nets got 13 points from Aaron Williams, but just two from Rodney Rogers on the night after his double-double, five from Lucious Harris and four from Zoran Planinic.
With Milwaukee threatening to pull away in the fourth, Martin put on his aggressive mug and scored 10 straight New Jersey points, completing the run with a nifty jump-hook at 3:09 to knot it at 76-76. That was as close to the lead as the Nets would get the rest of the way. Two Kukoc free throws at 2:52 and a Mason jumper at 1:59 put the Bucks up for keeps, 80-76.
There were opportunities for the Nets, but at 78-76, Kerry Kittles (10 points) was called for a questionable charge, and in the final 1:15, Jason Kidd missed three shots that could have tied it or given Jersey the lead.
“They made shots when we couldn’t,” Kidd (6 points, 8 assists, 9 rebounds, awful 3-of-14 shooting) said. “Their bench is the reason they’ve been so successful,” Kidd said. “They’ve got veterans who can score guys, who can go big.”
And not even a super return by Martin could overcome them.
