INDIANAPOLIS — The Nets gave the Eastern Conference-leading Pacers a much stiffer test on the road Saturday night than they did the Western Conference-leading Thunder at home the night before.
But in the end, the result was the same, as the Nets suffered their third straight loss, falling 97-96 to the Pacers in front of a sellout crowd of 18,165 inside Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
“We fought,” Nets coach Jason Kidd said. “We gave ourselves a great opportunity to win on the road against a top team in the East. That’s what you ask from your guys, that we have a chance.”
Coming off that blowout loss to the Thunder, the Nets (20-25) were expected to meet a similar fate after traveling here to face a rested Pacers (36-10) team that sits atop the Eastern Conference standings, and who already had beaten Brooklyn three times this season.
And after a close first half, it looked as if the Pacers would run the Nets out of the building early in the third quarter, when they opened the second half with a 12-2 run to take a 58-47 lead.
But unlike the two meetings between these teams in late December — when the Nets were possibly at their lowest point in their ugly two first months of the season — the Nets responded by clawing their way back into the game, eventually tying it on a pair of free throws by Shaun Livingston, who led the Nets with a season-high 24 points, that made it 76-all with 10:01 remaining.
The Pacers immediately responded, however, going on a 9-2 run that was capped by a driving layup by Brooklyn native Lance Stephenson to gave Indiana an 85-78 lead that the Pacers never would relinquish.
Stephenson, who finished with 14 points, seven rebounds and four assists, said earlier Saturday he was coming for Joe Johnson, as he felt he deserved the spot in the All-Star Game later this month that Johnson received.
“I could care less if it’s personal or not,” Johnson said after scoring 16 points in 38:45. “He needs to talk with the coaches, man. I ain’t got nothing to do with it.”
Although the Nets never managed to get back even with the Pacers after those Livingston free throws early in the fourth, they didn’t go away, and eventually had a chance to tie the game after a Johnson 3-pointer cut Indiana’s lead to 94-93 with 8.5 seconds left. But after David West knocked down a pair of free throws, Paul Pierce took an inbounds pass from Livingston and fired up a corner 3-pointer that was well short of the rim, and another West free throw sealed the win.
“We looked for Pierce, and also Joe coming up the middle,” Kidd said. “Shaun had a choice, and he went with Paul. That’s one of the easier 3s in the game to get, and when he got a good look, I thought it was going to go in.”
The Nets — who are employing a much smaller lineup against the massive Pacers frontcourt of Paul George, West and Roy Hibbert — were outrebounded badly for the second straight game. They didn’t do as poorly on the boards as they did against the Thunder on Friday, when they set an NBA record with just 17 rebounds, but still were outrebounded 46-27 by Indiana, including 12-6 on the offensive glass.
“I think they had a sequence where they got three or four straight rebounds, and that kind of killed us,” said Kevin Garnett, who has 12 points and 10 rebounds. “We had a couple times where we could’ve turned the corner and were just a little too late.
“We had our opportunities, we fought for the game, and we fought back. Obviously we didn’t like the way we played last night, and to come in here and fight they way we did on the road against these guys. I thought it was valid, man. I thought the effort was totally valid. We just have to keep playing like this.”