Spoiler The biggest win of the Nets’ season started a day earlier at the pool. On Monday, Garrett Temple and a handful of his teammates were hanging out by the pool of The Grand Floridian Hotel when they saw a few members of the Houston Rockets. Houston had beaten Milwaukee the previous night with a roster as undersized as Brooklyn’s, so Temple and the others started talking to the Rockets players about how to beat the Bucks. Milwaukee boasts one of the league’s best defenses but still has its weaknesses. The Rockets players told the Nets to capitalize on the deep ball. “They’re gonna give up a lot of 3s,” said Nets guard Chris Chiozza of Houston’s advice. “You’ve just got to be ready to take them and knock them down. We missed some, but you can’t stop shooting.” On Tuesday, the advice helped the short-handed Nets pull off a miraculous 119-116 upset over the Bucks. Brooklyn entered the game without Caris LeVert (hip contusion), Joe Harris (back tightness) and Jarrett Allen (rest), its top three players in the bubble. The result was a 57 shot attempts from 3, a career-high 26 points from Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, who started the season on a two-way contract, and 19 points from Temple. Chiozza earned his first career double-double with 10 points and a career-high 10 assists. Due to their lack of firepower, the Nets went into the game as 18.5-point underdogs, which made this win the biggest upset in NBA history by points spread since 1993, according to The Action Network. It also gave interim coach Jacque Vaughn an impressive resume highlight in the pursuit of the permanent job. Milwaukee star Giannis Antetokounmpo finished with 16 points after playing only the first half and former Net Brook Lopez sat out the game, although Temple said the Nets were under the impression that Antetokounmpo was going to play the second half. Regardless, Temple said it didn’t overshadow what Brooklyn was able to pull off. “It’s very big for us,” Temple said. “The fact that we were winning with their group, without Brook obviously, without Wes (Matthews), but they had a group that has won a lot of games. We were winning in the first half. We won the game with the people we had against the people they had and they played. This is very big for our confidence. We may see them in the first round, so we were coming in looking to make a statement.” Brooklyn entered the game without a clear alpha-dog on offense and Vaughn decided to keep that way. Instead of directing the offense to certain players, Vaughn emphasized that his players attack the basket to create opportunities for others, especially on the perimeter. The plan worked early as the Nets put up 40 points in the first quarter with Luwawu-Cabarrot accounting for 10 of them while hitting his first four shots. Vaughn’s offensive scheme in the bubble has been tailored to players’ specific skill sets since the roster underwent significant churn ahead of the restart. Brooklyn’s offense-by-committee made it hard for the Bucks defense to take away a specific player, allowing players such as Lance Thomas and Luwawu-Cabarrot to take full advantage. In the first quarter, Brooklyn hit 53 percent of its shots and 39 percent of its 3-point attempts. (Nets’ first quarter shot chart) Defensively, Brooklyn played a 2-3 zone against the Bucks, which it did earlier in the season, and double-teamed Antetokounmpo early and often. The Nets, and in particular newcomer Donta Hall, didn’t appear intimidated by Antetokounmpo. Hall, the team’s lone big man behind Allen, threw Antetokounmpo to the ground on a box out in the second quarter, which led to the two having to be separated. Shortly after, Justin Anderson took it a step further and posterized Antetokounmpo, affirming that the young Nets were not afraid of the reigning MVP. Vaughn said he loved Hall’s energy and physicality, which set the tone for how Brooklyn handled Milwaukee’s superior length and depth. “He gave us some force without having Jarrett Allen available. I think it’s extremely important to have a very competitive and gritty and a tough approach,” Vaughn said.“We talk about dictating and being aggressive. All those things were needed tonight. It was great to see it from this group.” The Nets looked impressive on defense considering the opponent, forcing 19 turnovers for 27 points, while having just seven of their own, with a roster full of relatively young and inexperienced players. Turnovers have plagued the Nets throughout the season, especially by some of their younger players when they had to play out of position. On Tuesday, it seemed everyone grew up. Not everything went Brooklyn’s way, however. Jamal Crawford’s long-awaited debut for Brooklyn was spoiled just as it started, when he strained his left hamstring coming around on a screen. In roughly six minutes, Crawford had five points and three assists and looked like the dynamic playmaker he was when he last played for Phoenix in 2019. The Nets were slowly ramping up Crawford, 40, into game-shape, after he went unsigned the whole season. Vaughn didn’t have an update postgame beyond Crawford’s diagnosis, but he said the 6-foot-5 guard has been beloved by the team and hopes his tenure with Brooklyn isn’t over. “I’m telling you, I love having him around,” Vaughn said. “It was awesome to see him on the floor tonight and look forward to him being on the floor again.” Vaughn said Crawford was supposed to be the Nets’ elder statesman on the court against Milwaukee to comfort the younger players, but when he went out, that fell to Temple. Temple was just 3-for-15 through the Nets’ first two games of the restart, but went 7-for-15 with five rebounds and four assists and had three of the game’s most important plays in the fourth quarter. The Nets coughed up a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter, and went down three when Brooklyn started to struggle against D.J. Wilson. Temple tied the game at 107 on a 3, and then found Chiozza the following possession for a layup on an impressive pass. Temple’s mid-range basket with 6.1 seconds left proved to be the dagger. Crawford’s injury also forced Vaughn to pair Jeremiah Martin alongside Chiozza at times, giving the Nets both backup point guards on the court at the same time. Chiozza and Martin coexisted easily as Martin added nine points and was a menace on defense. On Milwaukee’s final possession of the game, Martin knocked the ball out of the hands of Donte DiVincenzo to secure the win. Vaughn is now 4-1 as the Nets interim coach. On Wednesday, Brooklyn faces the Celtics, against whom the Nets are 2-1 this season. Odds are some combination of LeVert, Allen and Harris will return. Temple said the players know what Tuesday’s win could mean for Vaughn’s retention and that his role couldn’t be overstated. “We’re trying to win,” Temple said. “We’re not going out here to just mess around or have any moral victories, we’re trying to win a game. What I learned about Jacque is he is who I thought he is. Nothing different. He’s a player’s coach, he knows how to motivate. He puts people in position to play their best and he definitely enacts a lot of confidence on the offensive end. He’s a great fit, especially for the situation we went into tonight. He’s the perfect coach for this.” Now, maybe of more interest to the Rockets is the Nets’ opponent on Friday: the Sacramento Kings. Houston plays Sacramento on Sunday and the Nets owe the Rockets a favor after Tuesday’s win. Both teams might be back at the pool on Saturday.
