The Nets seemed destined to recover from a heavy loss in Brooklyn with an exciting short-lived victory in Toronto on Tuesday.
Then fate turned upside down with a terrible last five minutes, with missed shots, conflicting calls and missed front points. Oh, and heartbreaker 109-108 before 18,903 at Scotiabank Arena.
The Nets – who lost 36 at Barclays Center the night before – surprisingly defended in the area to 96-90 with 5:25 in a reversal from LaMarcus Aldridge. But they conceded 10 points without Raptor’s answer and never led again.
And it was Aldridge – starting in the place of Andre Drummond – who was called for not one, but two three-second defenses with a 55-second interval, as the eighth Nets (32-31) missed a game they should have had and even fell. further into the game swamp of the Eastern Conference.
“He had to win. We had control … we had a bit of an insulting drought, we had some revs and they made some hard hits. A few tough calls later and that’s the game, “said Aldridge, who had 16 points, nine rebounds and two fouls – one of which he said missed a call.
“One was probably legal, and then one was not legal. I was in pick and roll so I could be in the paint. … I think I touched Thaddeus [Young] since he was clearing the lane, so … I think it’s hard to pay down the stretch. You have to be sure if it’s right or not, and I don’t think it’s right. So that’s what it is. “
The first came with the remaining 3:05, which ended the series 10-0 in Toronto. Gary Trent Jr. (team with 24 points) hit the subsequent free throw, after which his sail made 100-96.
Aldridge’s second foul – which he and assistant coach Jacques Vaughan vehemently protested against – gave Trent another foul and a 101-98 lead to Toronto.
It was a call that shocked and disagreed the Nets to the end.
“Absolutely. Absolutely, “said James Johnson, who had a record 19 points for the team. “This time in the game we are obviously running a zone. We have to watch the movie. I don’t think so, to be honest. LA, he’s a smart vet. He watches a lot of movies, he knows a lot about what’s going on. You know, I don’t see him doing two of them.
Seth Curry (18 points, six assists) stopped the bleeding by spinning his finger and his long three tied him at 103-all with 50.8 seconds left. But Trent’s free throws 20 seconds later put Toronto back and the Nets never recovered.
Curry missed a pair of jumpers, and Trent’s free kicks pushed him to four, which essentially put him 18 seconds into the game. Johnson added a cosmetic 3 to the buzzer.
Now, having missed both ends of this consecutive game, the Nets are trailing seventh in Toronto (34-27) with three full games with just 19 games.
“It’s a sense of urgency for sure,” said Vaughn, who replaced Steve Nash when the head coach entered the health and safety records before Monday’s loss. “We talked about it before the match. We talked about it after the match. We’ll talk about that when we get home.
“There is an emergency. He must be with this group. They have to feel it, they have to feel it and hug it and go through that door. There is a sense of urgency in this group. “
The Nets are 4 points behind Boston in sixth place for the final guaranteed place in the playoffs, but may need to start keeping their backs, just two games away from Charlotte and Atlanta.
Toronto was without OG Anunoby (broken ring finger) and Fred VanVleet. But the Nets were essentially deprived of a full top five at the championship level at Kevin Durant (which they hope to return on Thursday against Miami), Kyrie Irving, Ben Simmons, Drummond and Joe Harris.
They still played clean and clear the first three quarters, shooting 54 percent overall and 8 of 18 out of a 3-point range with just seven defeats.
But the fourth? They were 28-19 ahead with 38 percent shooting from the floor, including 2 of 7 from deep with five hands.