MILWAUKEE — The Nets having to watch Milwaukee get the championship rings they thought should’ve been theirs was a slap in the face. What the Bucks did to them after that was a punch in the mouth.
Brooklyn got blitzed right out of the gate Tuesday against uber-physical Milwaukee, falling into a huge hole and dropping their season opener 127-104 in a raucous Fiserv Forum. The sellout crowd of 17,341 came for the ring ceremony and stayed to watch the Nets get their collective bells rung.
“Wasn’t good, obviously. We weren’t as sharp as we needed to be, probably weren’t as physical as we needed to be, weren’t as organized as we needed to be,” coach Steve Nash said. “But the one thing that disappointed me more than anything was loose balls, hustle plays. They seemed to win them all.”
With Kyrie Irving at home because of his refusal to adhere to New York City COVID-19 vaccine mandates, the Nets watched the Bucks get their championship bling, then went out and got blitzed themselves.
“I watched [the ceremony]. They deserve it. They were the last team standing last year, and we’ve got to work toward the right direction and build to be that team for this upcoming season,” James Harden said. “Game 1, it doesn’t get easier from here. It’s just something we’ve got to embrace.”
Kevin Durant had 32 points and eight rebounds, while Harden added 20 points, eight boards and eight assists. But other than Patty Mills — who had a great debut with 21 points and hit 7 of 7 from deep — there were few bright spots for the Nets, who showed the same Achilles’ heels and weaknesses.
The Nets allowed 21 more shot attempts, and 11 more from 3-point range. And they got outscored 22-2 off turnovers.
“They shot [21] more shots than us, and it was that way since the first quarter so we was climbing uphill all game,” Durant said. “We had good spurts, cut it to seven, cut it to eight a few times. But we just couldn’t get over the hump because they had more possessions than us, created more offense for themselves with offensive rebounds, they had like five of them in one possession.
“All the other stuff, rotations, rhythm and all that stuff will come. But we can’t give a team 20 more shots than us. Imagine coming into a game and we say, ‘Here, take the ball 20 times on offense before we get an offensive possession.’ Everybody’s going to lose that. That’s what it felt the game was.”
He’s not wrong. Just over 8 ½ minutes into the game Brooklyn already trailed by 19 and spent much of the rest of the evening chasing.
Nic Claxton went in for what he thought was a dunk, but got blocked at the rim by Giannis Antetokounmpo (32 points, 14 boards, seven assists). It led to a Pat Connaughton 3-pointer at the other end and a 21-8 Milwaukee lead.
Brooklyn trailed 31-12 after a Jrue Holiday pull-up 3-pointer with 3:13 left in the first. That left the Bucks 7 of 12 from deep, while the Nets missed their first five until Mills came off the bench and finally broke the drought.
The Nets allowed 11 more attempts in the first quarter alone, and a dozen more points in trailing 37-25. They turned the ball over, led the Bucks gouge them on the offensive glass, and paid for both.
Brooklyn still trailed 61-43 before reeling off a dozen points to crawl within six. Durant hit three straight buckets, including a 3-pointer, and Claxton — in only his second career start — dunked off a Mills feed to make it 61-55.
A Blake Griffin dunk moments later cut the deficit to 64-59 just before the half. But the Nets never got any closer. Griffin was ineffective, while LaMarcus Aldridge looked immobile and unable to switch, while Paul Millsap was held scoreless. That trio combined for just one block and offered no rim protection.
“One hundred field goals, they were killing us on the boards early but we kind of shortened that gap with the possession battle,” Durant said. “I think we just got to put our heads down, get the 50-50 balls, be a little bit more aggressive.”