Reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo was as dominant as ever with 32 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists Tuesday night at Fiserv Forum to lead the Bucks to a convincing 127-104 blowout victory over a Nets team that entered the season with designs on dethroning the champs.
The last time the Nets visited Fiserv Forum in June, they held a 3-2 second-round playoff lead over the Bucks with a chance to clinch, but they lost Game 6 and then failed to win Game 7 in overtime at home.
Kevin Durant topped the Nets Tuesday night with 32 points and 11 rebounds, James Harden added 20 points and eight assists and Patty Mills poured in 21 points, including 7-for-7 shooting from three-point range in his spectacular Nets debut.
But Antetokounmpo got all the help he needed from his supporting cast as Khris Middleton contributed 20 point and nine rebounds, and Pat Connaughton had 20 off the bench.
The Nets repeatedly cut double-digit leads by the Bucks back to single digits, but they couldn’t sustain the momentum from those repeated surges. They trailed by 14 late in the third quarter and pulled within eight at 101-93 on a three-pointer by Joe Harris with 8:57 left in the game, but back-to-back threes by Jordan Nwora and Grayson Allen plus a three-point play by Antetokounmpo pushed the Bucks’ lead back to 17 at 112-95 with 7:07 left and they cruised from there.
Before the game, the Bucks celebrated their 2021 NBA title with a ring ceremony that ended with them unfurling their championship banner. The Nets stayed in their locker room, but they undoubtedly heard the roaring crowd and likely were reminded of how the Bucks ended their season.
“They are the champs for a reason,” Nash said. “They are a big team, Giannis is a difficult cover, and they have other players around them that are excellent, Middleton, Holiday, but their role players are great. They have a lot of corporate knowledge, they’ve been doing this five years now. So they’re a very well organized, experienced team, and we got to taste that in the playoffs.”
If nothing else, the Nets entered this season completely healthy. The one person missing is Kyrie Irving, who has refused to comply with the New York COVID-19 vaccination mandate and has been told by the Nets he can’t join the team unless he is eligible for all games and not just for road games, but veteran Paul Millsap insisted the Nets have moved beyond that situation.
“When you come to work every single day and you’ve got a goal in your mind, you don’t allow distractions like that to deter you from the goal,” Millsap said. “It’s been a normal preseason for us. Of course, we’d love to have Kyrie here, but when the ball goes up in the air, we’ve got to play.”
Joe Harris moved to Irving’s guard spot in the backcourt with Harden to start the game along with Kevin Durant and Blake Griffin at the forward spots and third-year center Nic Claxton, who made only his second career start. Antetokounmpo scored 13 points and had eight rebounds in the game’s first eight minutes and had nine points in a 21-4 run that gave the Bucks a 19-point first-quarter lead.
The Nets fought back to trim their deficit to five points early in the second period only to see the Bucks respond with a 21-3 surge to expand their lead back to 59-40. But Durant scored seven straight points to ignite a 16-2 Nets surge that pulled them within five again before the Bucks reached halftime with a 66-59 edge.
