Just three games in and the NBA restart already produced one of the biggest upsets in basketball in recent decades.
Shorthanded Brooklyn Nets faced regular season-best Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday night and celebrated a 119-116 win despite being 19-point underdogs. This hasn’t happened since 1993 when 19.5-point underdogs Dallas Mavericks beat the Seattle SuperSonics.
Nets were perfectly positioned to lose the game, considering that they entered the NBA bubble without the majority of their key players. On top of that, Brooklyn was also without starters Caris LeVert, Joe Harris, and Jarrett Allen against Bucks. However, it didn’t matter at the end as the team rallied together and produced a win for the ages.
Nets’ had six players in double digits and eight with 8+ points. T. Luwawu-Cabarrot led the way with 26 points while Garret Temple added 19 points, five rebounds, and four assists.
“I totally do believe in momentum and the momentum of keeping your spirit in check,” said Nets interim coach Jacque Vaughn after the game. “We talked about as a group, the symbolism of bamboo, being extremely resilient and extremely flexible and adaptable, and tonight was another example. We had to be all of those three things with a different lineup. And so overall, that concept has stayed and hopefully continues.”
With this win, Nets improved to 32-35 record on No.7 and managed to keep 0.5 games advantage over Orlando Magic.
Buck, on the other hand, missed out on the opportunity to clinch the No.1 seed for the postseason.
