They're called the defending champs for a reason.
The Nets never led in their Game 1 loss to the Toronto Raptors, but they put up a much more valiant effort in Game 2 on Wednesday. The end result was still the same: A loss, this time 104-99, to fall to 0-2 in their first-round playoff series.
The Nets trailed by three on their second-to-last possession, but a bungled handoff from Joe Harris to Garrett Temple led to a game-sealing fast-break dunk for Raptors wing Norman Powell. That was Brooklyn's 17th turnover, and it was more costly than the prior 16 combined.
The Nets jumped out to an early 12-5 advantage and built a lead as large as 14 in the opening period, a byproduct of their free-flowing offense predicated on whipping the ball around to the open man. It's the offense the Nets had to run without their star players. Their bubble star, Caris LeVert, struggled mightily: He dished out 11 assists, but finished with 16 points on 5-of-22 shooting.
Temple finished with a team-high 21 points on 5-of-11 shooting from 3-point range, bouncing back from an awful Game 1 where he shot 1 of 10 from deep. But the Nets could not make enough shots from the perimeter, especially down the stretch.
The Nets made adjustments in Game 2. They opted to switch everything in pick-and-roll and screen situations, banking on their versatile players to defend every position. They also inserted Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot into the starting lineup in favor of Rodions Kurucs at power forward. TLC finished with 17 points on 3-of-10 shooting from downtown.
The Nets also continued prioritizing transition defense, like interim coach Jacque Vaughn preached. It worked: The Raptors scored 15 points on fast-break scenarios, but Brooklyn was active in getting back, forfeiting offensive rebounds to get set defensively.
The Raptors were led by Powell, who came off the bench and scored 24 points on 11-of-17 shooting from the field. Toronto outscored Brooklyn by 16 in Powell's 33 minutes, marking the second-best plus-minus for the team behind Serge Ibaka. The Raptors' pair of point guards, Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet, also torched the Nets. VanVleet recorded 24 points, 10 assists and five rebounds, while Lowry had 21 points, nine rebounds and three assists.
The Nets are down 0-2, an uphill battle against the defending champs. Under normal circumstances, they would be returning to Brooklyn to play Games 3 and 4 at Barclays Center. But there is no home-court advantage on the horizon for the Nets, only two more opportunities to extend the series in Orlando.
They gave a better fight in Game 2, but it wasn't enough to win. If that's the trend for each of the next two games, the Nets could be the first playoff team on a plane out of the Orlando bubble.
