The Nets had a chance to take a commanding 3-1 lead in their best-of-seven series with the Raptors with a win in Brooklyn on Sunday night, but you wouldn’t have known that from the way they started the game.
The Nets allowed a 13-2 run at the outset and trailed by as many as 15 points in the first quarter on their way to losing 87-79 to Toronto, leaving them befuddled afterwards at their lack of energy early.
“We came out flat,” said Shaun Livingston, shaking his head. “We just came out flat. No energy.
“It’s unacceptable for a playoff game. They had more energy, they played more desperate. … We regrouped, but we have to come out with that at the start of the game.”
The Nets trailed by as many as 17 in the first half before mounting a 30-8 run that bridged the end of the second and beginning of the third quarters to take their first lead. The Nets faded in the fourth quarter, but Livingston said coming back from the early deficit had nothing to do with it.
“No, no, no,” he said. “It’s all mental. We were right there.
“It’s not like they had a 20-point lead [in the fourth] and we ran out of gas. We had a one-point lead with five minutes left. That’s winning time.”
Nets coach Jason Kidd made a tactical gamble by bringing in Kevin Garnett a little earlier than he normally would in the fourth quarter, sending him to the scorer’s table with 8:28 remaining.
That decision later led to Kidd pulling Garnett with 4:43 left with DeMar DeRozan heading to the foul line and the Nets leading 79-78. But in the 2:18 Garnett sat, the Nets had two misses and two turnovers in four possessions. The Raptors took the lead on DeRozan’s free throws and a 3-pointer from Greivis Vasquez and never trailed again.
“I thought we waited the last game a little too long when we brought [Garnett] back with three minutes to go,” Kidd said. “So I thought to bring him back a little earlier and then have an opportunity to give him a minute to get some rest and hopefully buy some time to bring him back to finish the game off.”