Nets hope to ‘Buck’ trend in Milwaukee

Look to resurrect fading play-in hopes in trip opener

March 21, 2024 John Torenli, Sports Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Nets leading scorer Cam Thomas is tired of making excuses for the Nets' late-season plunge in the play-in standings. AP Photo by Doug McSchooler

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The Brooklyn Nets are running out of time in their pursuit of an Eastern Conference play-in spot.

They also don’t seem to have any answers for their apparent lack of late-season urgency.

“It is really exhausting,” Nets leading scorer Cam Thomas said of responding to Brooklyn’s ongoing malaise following Tuesday night’s 104-91 loss to visiting New Orleans in front of a sellout crowd at Barclays Center.

That was the Nets’ lone home contest during a brutal road stretch following a 1-5 road trip that kept them out of our borough for two weeks.

Now, Brooklyn (26-43) must embark on a four-game odyssey that begins Thursday in Milwaukee against the team with the second-best record in the conference.

Thomas has certainly been doing his share to help the Nets climb back into the play-in hunt.

The shooting guard has put up at least 20 points in a career-high six consecutive games, but Brooklyn has pulled out a victory in only one of those contests, a 120-101 triumph in Cleveland on March 10.

The Nets have lost four in a row since to fall 4 1/2 lengths behind 10th-place Atlanta for the final play-in spot in the East with 14 games left on the schedule.

“We just have to go out there and do what we say up here,” Thomas insisted from the postgame podium. “Even down to me, everybody; we have to do what we say up here.”

Doing so against the Bucks (44-25) may be a tall task.

Milwaukee gave NBA-leading Boston a fight to the finish Wednesday night despite missing two-time league Most Valuable Player Giannis Antetokounmpo for the second straight game due to what the team described as a left hamstring issue.

The Nets will try to snap a four-game losing streak in Milwaukee Thursday night whether the Bucks have Giannis Antetokounmpo available or not. AP Photo by Noah K. Murray

Damian Lillard, a player the Nets flirted with bringing in last offseason, scored 32 points and Bobby Portis added 24 and 15 rebounds for Milwaukee, which nearly erased a 21-point deficit before falling short, 122-119.

There was no definitive word postgame on whether or not Antetokounmpo would be ready to go Thursday.

Regardless, Milwaukee will be shooting for a three-game season-series sweep of the Nets after edging them, 129-125, at Barclays on Nov. 6 and rolling to a 144-122 rout on the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush on Dec. 27.

Antetokounmpo piled up 68 points and 24 rebounds in those two victories, the second of which may have played a role in the eventual firing of Brooklyn coach Jacque Vaughn.

The Nets rested three starters in the second meeting and barely played Thomas and Mikal Bridges, who combined for 14 points in 24 minutes.

“They competed hard,” Antetokounmpo said of Brooklyn’s short-handed roster. “I don’t know most of them but definitely I’ll learn them after today because they made it extremely, extremely tough for us.”

Vaughn, who was let go during the All-Star break following a 50-point loss in Boston, earned the franchise a $100,000 fine for violating the NBA’s player-participation policy.

The 22-point loss to Milwaukee began Brooklyn’s last five-game losing streak.

A fate they hope to avoid experiencing again when the Bucks host them at the Fiserv Forum Thursday night at 8 p.m.

Be it with Antetokounmpo, or without him.

Mikal Bridges hopes to regain his shooting touch and help the Nets avoid a fifth straight loss Thursday in Milwaukee. AP Photo by Eric Gay

NOTHING BUT NET: The Central Division-leading Bucks have won four straight meetings from the Nets dating to a 118-100 victory for Brooklyn at Barclays on Dec. 23, 2022. Antetokounmpo was held scoreless in the fourth quarter that night, but that’s when the Nets still had Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. … Milwaukee is 3-2 when Antetokounmpo doesn’t suit up this season. … Bridges knocked down a team-best four 3-pointers in Tuesday’s home loss to the Pelicans. The small forward is a combined 15-for-48 from the floor during Brooklyn’s four-game losing streak after going 9-for-14 and drilling five 3-pointers at Cleveland on March 10.