The Brooklyn Nets couldn’t hold on to their double-digit second half lead in a 117-111 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers Monday afternoon at Barclays Center.
With an 18-2 run that bridged the third and fourth quarters, the Sixers wiped out a 10-point Nets lead and went up 97-91. The Nets closed within 99-96 before the Sixers scored six straight for a 105-96 lead with 6:10 to go.
Spencer Dinwiddie finished a drive, Caris LeVert scored twice, then lobbed to Jarrett Allen to make it a 105-104 game with four minutes remaining. From there, nobody scored for nearly three minutes until Al Horford’s 3-pointer for the Sixers with 1:22 to go. Dinwiddie made two free throws, but Horford scored inside for Philly for a 110-106 lead.
Allen finished a lob from Dinwiddie to make it 110-108, but Furkan Korkmaz connected for a 3-pointer with 23.4 seconds left to put the Sixers up 113-108. With 20.8 seconds to go, Dinwiddie pulled up from 25-feet out off an inbounds pass and made it 113-111 with 19.9 seconds left.
The Nets had seven players score in double figures, led by Dinwiddie with 22 points and a team-high seven assists.
LeVert had 16 points, six assists and six rebounds and rookie Nic Claxton scored 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting.
Allen and Taurean Prince each posted double-doubles, with Allen scoring 13 points with 13 rebounds and Prince scoring 12 points with 12 rebounds. Joe Harris and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot each scored 12 points.
The Nets led 68-64 at halftime after shooting 51.1 percent in the first half. The 68 points tied for the second-most in a first half by the Nets this season.
Brooklyn closed the first quarter on an 8-1 run to take a 32-29 lead going into the second quarter. Claxton scored the final basket of the first quarter for Brooklyn and kept on rolling into the second. Claxton scored eight points in the 12-3 Nets run that opened the second quarter.
After driving for a basket, Claxton turned an offensive rebound into a three-point play. When LeVert missed the second of two free throws, Claxton grabbed another offensive board, leading to a Luwawu-Cabarrot 3-pointer. Finally, the first 3-pointer of Claxton’s career put the Nets up 44-32 two minutes into the quarter.
The Nets were still up by 10 with two minutes to go in the half after a Dinwiddie drive, but the Sixers answered with an 8-0 run and the Brooklyn lead was four at halftime.
Brooklyn led by as many as 10in the third quarter. Two quick Prince baskets had the Nets up 72-64 to start the half, and a Harris 3-pointer made it 79-70. When Luwawu-Cabarrot and LeVert wrapped a pair of threes around a Ben Simmons score for Philly, the Nets were up 89-79 with three minutes to go in the quarter. But the Sixers closed the quarter on an 11-2 run — including the final eight — to cut the Brooklyn lead to 91-90 going into the fourth quarter.
Philadelphia extended its run into the fourth quarter, pulling ahead to a 97-91 lead and eventually going up 105-96 midway through the quarter.