MILWAUKEE _ After two crushing home losses to the top two teams in the Eastern Conference, the Nets responded to building playoff pressure in a rematch with the top-seeded Bucks Saturday night at Fiserv Forum. The Nets blew a 15-point third-period lead but rallied down the stretch to pull out a 133-128 victory that lifted them to 40-40 in a virtual sixth-place tie with the Magic, who would lose a tiebreaker to the Nets.
The Nets held a 12-point lead starting the final period, but the Bucks were intent on making a game of it even without injured MVP candidate Giannis Antetokounmpo. They opened the fourth with a 17-5 surge, including seven points from Eric Bledsoe, to tie the game at 113 on a jumper by Khris Middleton with 7:50 left to play.
The Bucks finally managed to grab a 121-120 lead on a pair of foul shots by George Hill at the 5:23 mark. The Nets missed four straight 3s in that stretch before Caris LeVert nailed one at 4:07 for a 123-121 edge that was negated moments later by a Hill 3-pointer.
There would be two more lead changes and two ties before Joe Harris connected on a 3-pointer for a 131-128 Nets lead with 1:24 to play after previously keeping the possession alive with two offensive rebounds. When the Bucks' Sterling Brown missed a pair of foul shots at 1:15, D'Angelo Russell converted a layup at the other end for the two-possession lead the Nets needed to secure it.
Russell topped the Nets with 25 points and 10 assists, and LeVert totaled 24 points and five assists. Jared Dudley was stellar off the bench with 16 points seven rebounds and two steals. The Bucks (59-21) got 33 points and 11 assists from Bledsoe, and Middleton totaled 24 points.
The Nets entered the game with losses in four of their previous five contests, including a home loss on Monday to the Bucks, who have the best record in the NBA. But since the Bucks clinched home court advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs on Thursday with a win over the 76ers, they chose to sit out Antetokounmpo, who is nursing a sore left calf.
That seemed like a big break, but Nets coach Kenny Atkinson said, "As a coach, I look at all the negative things. Giannis is out, but that means they're going to play smaller and more spread out and more threes.
"It's still going to be a heck of a challenge. You think of Middleton, Bledsoe, Brook (Lopez). I think their big strength is their depth. Giannis is obviously an MVP candidate and a great player, but you've seen them with three guys out and still perform. That's the sign of a really elite team."
All-Star Middleton missed the game at Barclays Center, but he was as much of a force as Antetokounmpo was the previous game, scoring 16 first-half points to go with 15 by Bledsoe. The Nets got hot from the field midway through the first quarter and put together an extended run of 36-20 to build a 48-34 lead in the second quarter. Russell had 10 of his 18 first-half points in that stretch, and LeVert had nine of his 14 first-half points.
But the momentum shifted late in the second quarter when the Bucks' second unit put together a 23-7 run, including five points each from Ersan Ilyasova and Tim Frazier for a 65-61 lead. But the Nets scored the final five points of the quarter for a one-point halftime lead.
In the third period, Joe Harris scored nine points in a 19-7 burst that pushed the Nets' lead back to 87-75. The Bucks responded with an 18-9 move to pull within three points, but the determined Nets scored the next 12 points, ending with a pair of 3s by LeVert for a 108-93 lead that was their biggest to that point. The Bucks cut it to a 12-point difference by the end of the third, but it was a 42-point quarter by the Nets when they needed it most.
