“Damian Lillard is unstoppable” – ESPN reactions to Dame’ plays explode help Bucks beat Nets 115-108
Late in the first half there was a 19-minute stretch where the Brooklyn Nets outscored Milwaukee 52 to 29 they really brought it and I thought that group a lot of young guys Noah Clowney yeah Jaylen Wilson was in there and also Dennis Smith Jr did a really nice job as
Well trendon Watford so you got good contributions from a lot of players but late in the game there’s a reason the guys like Damen Lillard deis s aumo make the big bucks because late in games Closing Time winning time that’s when they’re supp to deliver and tonight
Milwaukee did when we sat here at halftime we talked about the fact that the theme was the Bucks having so many scoring options that was the Nets in the second half so let’s take a look at some of the things that the Nets had their for the Nets their fifth consecutive
Loss tying their longest losing streak of the season they dropped to 11 and 29 since December 27th that was their previous meeting with the Bucks and now with 12 games remaining they Trail the Atlanta Hawks by five games for that final playin spot in the Eastern
Conference but Frank and I want to take you through what happened in that second half because that’s where the scoring options came and after 11 first half turnovers they were taking care of the ball and forcing Milwaukee’s hand I thought this was a huge play right here
They could go down by 14 instead Dennis Smith Jr picks Patrick Beverly’s pocket leads to a basket the Nets at the start of the fourth quarter they go on a 12-2 run which got them back in the game I think it all started with that Dennis Smith steel Dennis Smith Junior steel at
The end of the third quarter later cam Thomas gets the ball quick little move penetrating and then that little fallback that he has to make the shot yeah cam Thomas did not have a good third third quarter they were getting back in the game without him but in the
Fourth quarter he made some huge contributions look at the work that he that they were doing down below and then the kick in there uh that is a eight-point run for Brooklyn at that point as they Trail it by four and then they start hitting from Beyond The Arc
And they needed cam Johnson to hit some of those shots yeah Johnson right here knocks down the three it was his second three-pointer that uh that was the one that got them gave them the lead for the first time since the first half and here’s Giannis the turnover leads to Dennis SMI
Jr and just like that the Nets are up by three they got the ball back and cam Johnson missed a wideopen three which could have made it a six-point game and this is the ensuing possession you’re okay with that shot if you’re the Brooklyn Nets that’s Giannis taking a
Three to his credit he knocked it down but right before that cam Johnson missed an open three and this was one of the problems that we saw the turnovers affecting them late when they played such clean basketball two mistakes on that play the turnover number one and
Mel Bridges if you’re going to foul Giannis you got to foul him you cannot let him convert a layup at the basket that’s another great three-point shot right there by cam Johnson Nets trailing it 103 101 and here’s the other turnover where they Nick claxon got his own rebound
Kicked it out the Dennis Smith Jr drove in the lane and once again Damen Ard with the steal finds Malik Beasley in the corner and that’s essentially your game right there 108 101 and one more from Dame just a quick trigger right there and nails to three and that pretty
Much iced it yeah Damen lard and you know Damen lard on the play where Giannis has the three-point play really showed a lot of emotion I kind of thought he carried them in the second half for whatever reason Yannis didn’t really look emotionally like he was in
The game he had that one little dust up in the first half with Dennis shuder that that uh ended up you know becoming another dust up in the second half that was the one time he showed a little bit of emotion he looked a little out of the
Game he still made some big plays I’ll give you that but this game was won by Damen Lillard no mistake about it I think the Nets will would would say the same it’s disappointing because the Nets played so well in the first half you’re on the road against a championship
Contender down 20 which you don’t want to be but give Kevin oi a lot of credit they came out in the third quarter and showed some fight there are two things you can do in a game like this you want to give up get on the uh plane go back
Home you play the Knicks on Saturday have at it instead the Nets made this a game it’s just disappointing that they couldn’t close it out because again they deserved better tonight do you think some of the activity in the second half had to do with Building A Fire for the
Nets what I’m talking about is Dennis shuder and Jay Crowder at one point kind of mixing it up getting into its second quarter this is where it started in a 584 41 game and again it’s getting pretty physical here well so they call the foul and then Giannis slaps down on
Dennis shooter the referees made a mistake here this right there should have been a technical foul call a technical there and it’s over with so then in the second half Dennis shuder fouls Giannis and I only think Dennis shuder did one bad thing here he’s standing over him he’s kind of taunting
So I get it that’s a technical Jay Crowder comes over and pushes that’s where Jay Crowder gets the technical foul and then Shuda goes back over to Giannis and he stands over him again he must have said listen I got you back from what you did to me and then Yannis
Popped up and you can see grazes Dennis shooter so the referees we all saw that Bob it’s taken us five seconds to figure out what the ref should have done for some reason had to review that for about 10 minutes what a joke that was this was
A big nothing on Giannis right well you know listen I think if he really cocked his head back and hit him that’s a head but you’re out of the game he kind of grazed in a shooter I think the referees did the right thing I think everyone
Deserved a technical foul right so the Nets got the one free throw because there was two technicals on Milwaukee only one on the Nets why is it taking them that long to review it though it was and that was that was one of several reviews in the second half they made
That third quarter brutal the Nets made it exciting and the Nets made the fourth quarter exciting the referees and I know they do a t a good job and they have a tough job at times but come on you got to get through that a little bit quicker
That was pretty obvious what had happened on the court that’s a technical on J Crowder it’s a technical on shuder for kind of taunting jannis standing over him and what jannis did is a technical game on let’s go there’s no need no need to review that for 10
Minutes well let’s talk about uh the idea that Mel Bridges in the night he had cooking up something special with hexclad joining the hybrid Revolution at hexclad decom muel Bridges coming off a game against Pelicans in which he did not shoot well but tonight took a lot
More shots Frank 9 to 19 from the field 6 threes and 24 points and the big shot that he made you showed it before with the Nets down five he hit that three-pointed with 217 to go which made it a two-point game and the Nets got the
Ball back and that was the turnover that led to the Malik Beasley uh three-pointer that he made so Mel Bridges who had a quiet first half was really good in that second half made some really big shots look confident in his shooting as well for the Nets you
Hope that this can carry over it’s a quick turn turn around to Saturday afternoon but guess what the Knicks are going to have the same quick turn around they’re out in Denver playing right now so they even have a longer flight less rest the whole thing but if I’m Kevin
Oly and if I’m the Brooklyn Net front office I have to be really happy with what my coach did at halftime and what my players did you always wonder when it gets to this late in the season do you have fight lift do you want to be in the
Playin the net showed you tonight that they do all right we got to take a break just getting started here on htad post game coming up we’ll check out some highlights from Thursday’s other NBA games will also hear from Kevin o after his team fights back but drops Another fore speech e for is for for for for for
“Damian Lillard is unstoppable” – ESPN reactions to Dame’ plays explode help Bucks beat Nets 115-108
