Nets heading back to Brooklyn down 0-2 in series following Game 2 loss to Sixers

PHILADELPHIA — The Nets are headed back to Brooklyn down 0-2 to the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of the playoffs.

For all the adjustments that the Nets made after Game 1 and despite leading at the half in Game 2, the Sixers turned the tide on Brooklyn in the second half in a 96-84 loss at Wells Fargo Center. Philly went on a 14-5 run early in the third quarter that erased the Nets’ lead and forced Brooklyn back on its heels for the rest of the night.

The Nets have now lost eight straight playoff games dating back to their conference semi-finals series with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2021. It’s the second consecutive year that the Nets have dropped the first two games of their opening-round series in the playoffs.

“We get open looks, they tried to go zone. We had enough shooting out there the ball just didn’t go in,” Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said. “We shot over 40 threes tonight. I can almost guarantee a lot of those looks we’ll take again, so give our group credit for maintaining the game plan. (James) Harden, (Joel) Embiid), kept them in check. Offensive rebounds from P.J. (Tucker) kept that in check. Give credit to (Tyrese) Maxey tonight. So that’s part of the playoffs, if someone steps up and you hope that step up is on your end, but give them credit.”

Monday’s game was another night of the 76ers making halftime adjustments that the Nets couldn’t recover from. Trailing 49-44 at the half, Philly forced Brooklyn back into their ways from Game 1 which got them in trouble and Maxey carved up Brooklyn all night.

Brooklyn’s offense struggled to put up points in the second half as the Sixers held them to just 35 points total in the final 24 minutes. The Nets did get some good looks, but they shot 13-for-37 from the floor in the second half.

The night was a career performance for Cam Johnson, who carried the Nets’ offense in the first, but found himself the focus of the 76ers’ defense in the second half. Johnson finished the night with 28 points — a new career high — on 11-of-19 shooting, but the rest of the team shot 19-for-61 from the field.

“It wasn’t really a defensive issue as much as it was kind of offensive,” Cam Johnson said. “You’re planning a set defense every time. They’re in that zone, kind of slowed us down a little bit, can only have 14 points in that third quarter, you know. Playoff games like this, when they feel like they’re getting stops that gives them juice. It’s all about trying to take that away. So we didn’t do a good enough job with that coming out of half.”

Brooklyn as a team shot 37.5% from the field by the final buzzer and 31.0% from three-point range. The Nets attempted 42 threes on Monday, which should at the least make Vaughn somewhat happy.

Vaughn had discussed before the game the need for the Nets to shoot more from beyond the arc after there was such a large disparity in Game 1.

Mikal Bridges had 21 points and shot 6-of-15 from the field, but didn’t get the three ball to drop much during the course of the game. Spencer Dinwiddie had 15 points, but struggled to shoot until the fourth quarter, and Seth Curry had nine points off the bench.

Maxey had a game-high 33 points and knocked down six of his 13 three-point attempts. Joel Embiid finished the night with 20 points and pulled down a game-high 19 rebounds, while Long Island native Tobias Harris also had 20 points.

“He was a beneficiary of a lot of our rotations,” Johnson said about Maxey’s play. “He’s in that corner. Kind of just waiting on those threes. Those ones are tough to give up man because he’s just teeing them off, making them and he’s a guy that’s capable. Shoots a high percentage shot, has been shooting a high percentage, so it’s nothing that we should be surprised by. But man they was there finding him and it kind of stretched our rotations a little bit.

“It’s another thing that we just got to go back and look at and try to clean up.”

The rebounding discrepancy remained as the Nets’ lack of size continued to plague them, being outrebounded 56-33 and 13-6 along the offensive boards.

Brooklyn had started the game getting back to their game a bit more than they had in Game 1. The Nets were taking shots from beyond the arc and move the ball quickly in transition, which allowed them to get more open looks.

Brooklyn was able to limit James Harden to just eight points as well and two buckets from beyond the arc.