Game 3 on Friday night was certainly an entertaining game from a basketball sense, and it also contained a ton of twists-and-turns along the way.
After a poor first quarter in front of a surprisingly lackluster Barclays Center crowd, the Nets rebounded to win the second frame 30-22 en route to taking a four-point halftime lead. Brooklyn was able to string together a 10-1 run towards the end of the first half that put them up 49-41 only to see their lead chopped in half by a quick four-point Toronto spurt.
The Nets really started to break away in the third quarter, which they won by seven and used to take a 11-point advantage into the final 12 minutes of gameplay. Once in the fourth, Brooklyn started to feed off an increasingly-rowdy home crowd and worked to build its lead, all the way up to 15 points at the 5:01 mark after a huge Joe Johnson three, one of his three on the game.
However, from there, Toronto fought back, and in a way eerily similar to the Nets’ Game 4 loss to the Bulls in last year’s Round 1, nearly stole a win right out of Brooklyn’s hands. The Raptors went on a 8-0 run to make the score manageable and then thanks to some bad Brooklyn turnovers, ill-advised defense, and way too many missed free throws (thanks, Deron and Shaun), Dwane Casey’s team was right back in this game.
Down by just two with 20 seconds left in the game, after a free throw split by Shaun Livingston, Patrick Patterson (who scored 17 on 6-of-7 shooting from the field) was fouled by Andray Blatche on the rebound attempt. However, Patterson would miss both freebies and then the Nets rebounded the ball, and made their final four free throw attempts to seal the narrow victory, that should have been an easy one.
Although the Raptors would probably blame the loss on the officiating and not their lack of ball control (19 turnovers, made 60 in three games for Toronto), the Nets won this game by their (mostly) great play in the final three quarters of this pivotal game. Brooklyn greatly improved their rebounding from the 52-30 (in favor of the Raptors) beating on the boards to lose just 35-29 in that department last night. Crazy how just a small increase in rebounds can make such a big difference.
Also, for Toronto, Jonas Valanciunas was held relatively in check (10 points and 10 rebounds) due to good interior Brooklyn defense and foul trouble while Terrence Ross and Amir Johnson just stunk it up for the Raptors and didn’t really produce much at all in their 51 combined minutes. Patterson and Greivis Vasquez, who have been crucial to the Raptors this series, should have gotten more late-game minutes, an oversight that can be attributed to Casey.
Meanwhile, for the Nets, Deron Williams and Joe Johnson stepped up in a big way. Joe dropped 29 points to lead the Nets on efficient, again, 11-for-17 shooting to go with 3-for-4 three-point shooting. Deron looked like a new player on the court, as he carved up Kyle Lowry on offense en route to 22 points and eight assists. D-Will was using his patented crossover and other dribble moves to school an overmatched Lowry, who was badly beaten in the point guard duel.
Paul Pierce added 18 points, most of which he attained after another poor shooting start for him. The bench didn’t do much for the Nets, as Andray Blatche (12 points) was the only reserve to put up double figures. Good thing the starters did such a good job, as only stout defense at key moments (looking at you, AK) was needed, not a lot of points.
Regardless of how they finished out the game, the Nets winning Game 3 gives them a much-needed 2-1 series lead and allows them to back the Raptors all the way against the proverbial win should Brooklyn also take Game 4, which is tomorrow at Barclays. Toronto can blame every one of their losses this series on the officiating, but all they have to blame is their own inexperience and the Nets’ ability to use their own strengths to take advantage of that weakness.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
