NEW YORK — The Brooklyn Monstars looked more like the Looney Tunes Monday night.
With Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving resting the second game of a back-to-back, and Spencer Dinwiddie out indefinitely with a partially torn ACL, the Nets were without three of their four primary playmakers.
Unlike Space Jam, Michael Jordan did not walk through the Barclays Center door. If only His Airness was available to play.
With 8.1 seconds to go in overtime and the Nets down two, head coach Steve Nash drew up a play. Caris LeVert had just missed a potential game-winner in regulation, settling for a side-step fading three that ricocheted off right iron to close the fourth quarter.
This time, he didn’t touch the ball. Instead the Memphis Grizzlies denied him on the inbounds pass and forced the ball to Joe Harris, whose one-dribble pull-up did not go down.
The Grizzlies’ Kyle Anderson went to the foul line, and missed the second free throw before recovering his own miss and hitting two free throws to put the Grizzlies up five for good. With the 116-111 defeat, the Nets (2-2) have lost two in a row after starting 2-0.
It was a playoff-like atmosphere between two teams without their best players. The Memphis Grizzlies did not have front-court sensation Jaren Jackson Jr. and watched helplessly as reigning Rookie of the Year Ja Morant landed awkwardly on his left foot, requiring a wheelchair to be helped off the floor.
With none of his starting playmakers, Nets head coach Steve Nash trotted out a starting lineup of LeVert, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, Harris, Taurean Prince and DeAndre Jordan. It was an ugly start: The Grizzlies jumped out to an early 20-9 lead and built a first-quarter lead as large as 12.
But in the blink of an eye, the Nets seized momentum with three consecutive triples, two from Luwawu-Cabarrot, then one on a backward, no-look shovel pass from LeVert to Harris.
From there it was off to the races, an anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better game of tug of war between two hungry, suddenly shorthanded teams — one in the Grizzlies still looking for their first win of the season.
LeVert couldn’t channel his inner Jordan, but he did find his inner Magic. He whipped the ball around the floor to the tune of 11 assists to go with his five steals but required 29 shots to get his 28 points and couldn’t cash in on a number of attempts to give his team a late lead. Late in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter, LeVert created space with a behind-the-back dribble, then cashed-in on an open top-of-the-key three that gave Brooklyn a 106-104 lead. He then missed his following three go-ahead shots, including the side-step three that would have won the game at the buzzer.
LeVert was one of a number of Nets players who went cold after his last shot in the fourth quarter: Brooklyn didn’t score again until the 1:43 mark in overtime, and it was on a LeVert steal then slam in transition. LeVert then hit the next shot, a three that put the Nets up 111-110.
The Nets will have to put this one behind them and get ready for another young team with something to prove. Next up are back-to-back games against Trae Young and the visiting Atlanta Hawks.
Durant and Irving should be back for those games, transforming the Nets back into the Monstars they morphed into this offseason. The question for this team still remains: Do the Nets need more pieces, or can they win a championship as is?
