Antetokounpo Outscores Durant 49-42, Bucks Edge Nets
Giannis Antetokounmpo played how he wants to play, and it was enough to overcome a terrific effort by Kevin Durant.
Watch CBS News
Giannis Antetokounmpo played how he wants to play, and it was enough to overcome a terrific effort by Kevin Durant.
Brooklyn had its lead over Philadelphia for the East No. 1 seed cut to a half-game ahead of a five-game trip that starts Sunday with the first of a pair of games in Milwaukee.
The Nets are 29-8 since Feb. 10, best in the league, and have clinched a playoff spot.
Kyrie Irving finished with nine points, six rebounds and four assists. Seven other Nets scored in double figures on the night Brooklyn became the first Eastern Conference team to lock up a playoff spot.
Long a superstar, Kevin Durant is turning into a super sub.
The Nets got their running game going again, with Harris making consecutive 3-pointers off passes from Irving to cap a 10-0 spurt that pushed the lead to 86-70 in the final minute of the third.
Kyrie Irving had 28 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists, and Bruce Brown added 21 points and 14 rebounds for the Nets, who again played without the injured Kevin Durant.
Joe Harris also hit a pair of late free throws to cap his 24-point night for the Nets, who won despite being without both Kevin Durant and James Harden.
Bam Adebayo drove left, stopped and watched his 13-foot jumper rattle in as time expired, a shot that allowed the Heat to beat the Brooklyn Nets 109-107 on Sunday to snap a three-game slide.
The Nets connected on 51% of their 3-pointers (21 for 41), with Harris (6 for 9) and Shamet (6 for 11) leading the way.
The Nets forward is retiring from the league after 15 years revealing that he played his last game with an irregular heartbeat and saying it's time he put his health and family first.
Harden is out with a strained right hamstring and Durant got a night off after playing 27 minutes against the Timberwolves.
The game was rescheduled from the previous night, out of sensitivity to the community following the traffic-stop death of 20-year-old Daunte Wright.
The Lakers had led most of the way and were ahead 66-62 when Irving fouled Schroder with 9:41 left in the third.
Durant returned from a 23-game absence to spark Brooklyn's most explosive half of the season, finishing with 17 points on 5-for-5 shooting in the Nets' rout of the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday night.
