PHILADELPHIA — In the final two minutes, Jeremy Lin strained to lift the Nets to their second road win, hitting two three-pointers, making a crucial steal and prying a rebound away from 76ers center Joel Embiid. But it wasn’t enough.
For the third time in three appearances since Lin’s return from a hamstring injury, the Nets engaged in a close stretch battle, and for the third time, they failed to close the deal in a 108-104 loss Sunday night at Wells Fargo Center. The Nets still have only one road win this season.
Starting with their final basket of the third period, the 76ers took charge with a 13-0 run to gain a 94-86 advantage when Ersan Ilyasova hit a step-back jumper with 9:08. That provided a spark right after Embiid went to the bench with 28 points. Embiid was on a 28-minute playing-time limit, and coach Brett Brown wanted to preserve five minutes for the end.
When Lin entered with 6:58 left to play, the Nets trailed, 97-91. Lin began with a turnover, but then, the Nets’ defense tightened, forcing four missed shots and a turnover by the 76ers as the Nets crept within one at 97-96 after five straight points from Joe Harris. When Brook Lopez made a layup with 2:54 left, the Nets had a 98-97 lead.
But it was short-lived as Embiid, who had returned just over a minute earlier, buried a three-pointer. After another Lin turnover, the 76ers pushed their lead to 102-98 with two free throws from Robert Covington. But Lin gained a measure of atonement when his three-pointer with 1:35 left cut the deficit to one. Then, at the other end, Lin stole the ball from Embiid to give the Nets a chance to gain the lead.
But Trevor Booker failed to convert a corner three off a pass from Lin, who stole the rebound from Embiid and fed Sean Kilpatrick for a pullup jumper that missed and forced the Nets to begin fouling. Embiid and Covington each hit a pair of foul shots for a 106-101 lead with 8.7 seconds left. Bojan Bogdanovic hit a three with 5.3 seconds showing to make it a two-point game, and after two more foul shots by Ilyasova, Lin nailed a corner three to cut it to one point with 2.5 seconds left. But that’s where the clock ran out on their comeback attempt.
Lopez led the Nets (7-19) with 22 points, nine rebounds and eight assists, Lin finished with 16 points in 22 minutes, Harris had 19, and Bogdanovic had 14. Embiid had a monster game for the 76ers (7-20) with 33 points and 10 rebounds, and Ilyasova totaled 22 points, including a 4-for-7 effort from three-point range.
Before the game, the 76ers’ Brown said he was starting big men Embiid and Okafor together because he liked the matchup against the Nets’ Lopez and Trevor Booker, suggesting Booker wasn’t an especially mobile power forward. And Nets coach Kenny Atkinson agreed the pairing could cause problems with their size and shot-blocking.
Embiid certainly started well enough with nine first-quarter points, but the 76ers’ pairing accounted for a total of 11 first-half points as the Nets took a 57-54 lead. Lopez had 19 points by himself in the first half, and Booker did a nice defensive job in making Okafor a non-factor on offense.
An 8-0 Nets run early in the third quarter gave them their biggest lead at 68-59. But that’s when Embiid kicked it into high gear with a dominant third quarter at the offensive end. First, he scored eight straight 76ers points to cut their deficit to 70-67. Late in the period, Embiid scored nine straight 76ers points, including a three-pointer that pulled them within 81-79. But five Lin points at the end of the quarter gave the Nets an 86-83 lead going to crunchtime.
..... - Newsday