The Brooklyn Nets are navigating a gauntlet over the season's final stretch as they chase the franchise's first playoff berth since 2015, with five straight games against top five teams in the Eastern Conference. Two of those games are against the Milwaukee Bucks, who brought the NBA's best record into Barclays Center Monday night and beat the Nets 131-121.
The Nets wiped out a 22-point first-quarter deficit, pulling in front in the second quarter and then trading leads throughout the third.
But after the Bucks took a narrow two-point advantage into the fourth quarter, they outscored the Nets 10-2 to start the fourth quarter and take a 101-91 lead. The Nets quickly cut that deficit to three, but got no closer the rest of the way in a high-scoring final quarter in which the Bucks matched every Nets challenge.
D'Angelo Russell led the Nets with 28 points and added 10 rebounds for a double-double. Caris LeVert scored 24 points and made 4-of-8 3-pointers. DeMarre Carroll had 20 points with five rebounds and Joe Harris scored 17 with six rebounds while shooting 5-for-7 from 3-point range.
Spencer Dinwiddie had 12 points and Ed Davis grabbed 14 rebounds.
The Nets withstood Milwaukee's first-quarter blitz to surge back into the lead after trailing by 22 points and went into halftime down by four.
A 17-2 run put the Bucks up 32-11 with three minutes to go in the opening quarter, and after a Dinwiddie layup, Brook Lopez's three-point play made it a 35-13 game. The Bucks led 35-20 at the end of the first quarter after shooting 56.5 percent.
But the Nets had already began climbing back into the game before the end of the quarter, with LeVert's 3-pointer and drive followed by two Dinwiddie free throws. They carried the momentum into their 34-point second quarter, holding Milwaukee to two points over the first five minutes.
Two Carroll free throws made it a 22-2 Brooklyn run going back to the final minutes of the first quarter and brought the Nets within 37-35. With Milwaukee up 41-38, Russell made two free throws, then found Carroll in the lane in a transition crowd for the go-ahead basket with a 42-41 lead with just under six minutes to go in the half.
Milwaukee pushed its lead back to 10 points before Brooklyn scored seven of the final nine points of the half to make it a 59-54 game at halftime.
A 9-0 Nets run early in the third quarter tied the game at 63, and Russell's 3-pointer put the Nets up 66-65, the first of 16 lead changes before the Bucks took a 91-89 lead into the fourth quarter.
Milwaukee jumped up to a 10-point lead with a quick burst to start the fourth quarter before Harris and LeVert answered with 3-pointers to bring the Nets back within 101-97 with 9:49 to go. Another Harris 3-pointer had the Nets within 103-100. From there, Eric Bledsoe knocked down a 3-pointer and George Hill scored five straight points to put the Bucks back up 111-100.
UP NEXT
The Nets wrap up a three-game home stretch against the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday, then take off for a road back-to-back at Milwaukee and Indiana on Saturday and Sunday.