NEW YORK _ The Nets held things together nicely for 24 minutes on Sunday night. They were without second-leading scorer DeMarre Carroll and major 3-point threat Quincy Acy _ out with a sore right ankle and a left groin strain, respectively _ and looked the better team in their matchup with the Nuggets at Barclays Center.
Then over the first eight minutes of the third quarter the Nets completely unraveled. Denver opened the second half with a 34-6 run and grabbed a 25-point lead en route to a 124-111 win before a crowd of 14,854. It was Brooklyn's first loss at home this season and drops them to 3-4.
The Nets were 2-for-17 shooting as a three-point halftime lead disintegrated in the Denver blitz. In the final part of the run, the Nuggets made 10 straight shots from the floor, the last three of them 3-pointers. When Will Barton's 3-pointer with 3:19 left in the quarter made the score 94-69. The Nets deficit grew to 26 before the quarter ended. Brooklyn trailed by double figures through the entire fourth quarter.
Spencer Dinwiddie had 22 points, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson had 18 points and Joe Harris had 16 points for the Nets. Jamal Murray's 26 points paced Denver.
The Nets offense didn't seem to miss Carroll or Acy in a first half that ended with a 63-60 lead on the Nuggets. Brooklyn shot 52 percent from the floor including 57 percent on three-pointers and led most of the way. They also looked better on the boards _ a big problem in Friday's loss to the Knicks _ with a 28-14 edge at the break.
Smooth sailing however, it was not. The Nets let a 14-point lead second quarter lead slip to two with 3:49 to the break. They also committed nine turnovers to Denver's one. The Nuggets transformed the turnovers into seven points.
Caris LeVert had eight points and Joe Harris added a pair of 3-pointers as the Nets led Denver 36-29 after the first quarter. In the second, Harris had another 3-pointer in a 9-0 burst for a 45-31 lead with just under 10 minutes left in the half.
Denver's Emmanuel Midiay had 13 points, including eight straight, as the Nuggets came all the way back to cut the margin to 55-53.
