The Brooklyn Nets had one of their best offensive showings of the season foiled by Jimmy Butler's game-winning 3-pointer as the Philadelphia 76ers came back from a 20-point deficit to beat the Nets 127-125 at Barclays Center on Sunday evening.
Spencer Dinwiddie had given the Nets a 125-124 lead on his top of the key jumper with 26.8 seconds remaining.
Dinwiddie and D'Angelo Russell delivered huge games for the Nets.
Russell finished with a season-high 38 points, two shy of his career high of 40, while shooting 16-for-28 with eight rebounds and seven eight assists. Dinwiddie matched his career high with 31 points on 11-of-15 shooting, including 4-for-5 from 3-point range.
Jarrett Allen had 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Nets.
Russell was hot from the start in making his first four shots. As the Sixers pushed to cut into the lead in the fourth quarter, largely behind Butler, Russell scored nine straight points, with a 3-pointer putting the Nets back up 10, 113-103.
But with the Nets up 118-105, Philadelphia's 11-0 run cut the margin to two. Allen's rebound dunk made it 120-116 Brooklyn, but the Sixers took a 121-120 lead on JJ Redick's 3-pointer. Joe Harris answered with a 3-pointer for a 123-121 Nets lead before Joel Embiid's three-point play made it 124-123 Philadelphia.
Against the NBA's sixth-ranked team in opponent field goal percentage, the Nets had their best shooting night of the season in connecting for 56.8 percent from the field, including 10-25 from 3-point range.
The Nets shot 57.8 percent in the first half, building a lead as high as 20 points and taking a 68-54 advantage into the break.
Dinwiddie's 3-pointer with 5.1 seconds left in the first quarter was the start of a 10-0 Brooklyn run capped by Jared Dudley's 3-pointer that put the Nets up 39-25 and led to a Sixers timeout 2:30 into the second quarter.
A seven-point Dinwiddie surge made it 56-40 and his pull-up three with 1:22 to go in the half put the Nets up by 20 for the first time. Philadelphia 3-pointers from Landry Shamet and Wilson Chandler cut Brooklyn's lead to six at halftime.
Dindwiddie's 16 first-half points were matched by Russell, who made his first four shots of the game and scored 11 of Brooklyn's 32 first-quarter points. The Nets held Philadelphia to just 36.7 percent shooting in the first half, including 4-of-17 from 3-point range.
The Nets extended their lead back to 19 in the third quarter, going up 83-64 on a Rondae Hollis-Jefferson pull-up jumper in transition. After the Sixers cut the Brooklyn lead to 89-80, Ed Davis put back a rebound to halt Philly's 16-6 run. Dinwiddie scored on a drive, working around a Davis screen, then made two free throws. Davis' three-point play put the Nets back up 98-82, and they took a 102-89 lead into the fourth quarter.
UP NEXT
The Nets host the Utah Jazz on Wednesday and the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday before visiting the Washington Wizards on Saturday.