{"id":154493,"date":"2022-12-11T08:31:10","date_gmt":"2022-12-11T08:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wow-missing-eight-players-nets-shock-pacers-136-133\/"},"modified":"2022-12-11T08:31:10","modified_gmt":"2022-12-11T08:31:10","slug":"wow-missing-eight-players-nets-shock-pacers-136-133","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wow-missing-eight-players-nets-shock-pacers-136-133\/","title":{"rendered":"WOW! Missing eight players, Nets shock Pacers, 136-133"},"content":{"rendered":"
Where to begin!?!<\/p>\n
WOW! <\/p>\n
There were moments when doubt may have crept in, but in the end, the final score was Brooklyn Nets 136, Indiana Pacers 133. It was the Nets third straight win after last weekend’s loss to the Celtics and are now 10-3 since they got blown out by the Kings in Sacramento. They are now 16-12. <\/p>\n
Thomas, who didn’t play in the third, took over in the fourth. He could not be stopped. Each time Indiana looked like it was going to take over the game, the 6’4\u201d 21-year-old guard found a way, with floaters, free throws and an array of the improbable. Post-game, Thomas offered praise for his head coach, Jacque Vaughn.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means everything and when your coach trusts you and the coach staff trust you. You play more freely, play real hard. So I’m just glad I got the coach’s trust and the coaching staff. It helps me a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
The game was, frankly, expected to be a blowout. How can you lose all your stars \u2014 Kevin Durant didn’t even travel \u2014 and get a big W. Indeed, at the beginning of the game, the social media narrative was that the Nets had screwed fans by resting so many of its stars. But the narrative changed quickly when the Nets starting five of Edmond Sumner, Patty Mills, Markieff Morris, Day’Ron Sharpe and Kessler Edwards. It was only three days ago that Sharpe and Edwards were playing for Long Island in the G League!<\/p>\n
The win was particularly special for Sumner, a return to Indianapolis where he had played his entire four-year career before ruptured his achilles and missed all of last season. He got the Nets off to a fast start, scoring 40 points in the first quarter, 14 of them by the 26-year-old speedster and seven by the 34-year-old Mills who hadn’t played since before Thanksgiving. <\/p>\n
By halftime, it looked like Indiana was going to take control, as the Pacers went on a 15-3 run to put the Hoosiers up by 10. Then, things got ugly in the third and with 6:24 left, the Nets were down by a game-high 14 and it looked like nature was taking its course, talent and all that, ya know.<\/p>\n
But a couple of things happened, Vaughn switched to a zone that caught Pacers unawares and slowly but surely they reduced Indy’s advantage. The change paid immediate dividends and the Nets went on a 15-6 run. Why’d he wait? Vaughn said he did n’t want to use it before the half so Rick Carlisle, his counterpart, could n’t prepare for it. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn’t want to give it to him before halftime so they could adjust to it at halftime. So we kept it in our back pocket and little bit of a surprise attack,\u201d said Vaughn smiling.<\/p>\n
With 9:49 left in the fourth, Nets tied things up at 105 on a baseline drive by David Duke Jr. The Nets still trailed 122-120 with 3:24 left before they took the lead with a 6-0 run: Thomas’ tied it, and Yuta Watanabe, back from missing 10 straight games, hit one of two from the line but grabbed his own miss and found Mills for a 3-pointer, giving Brooklyn a 126-122 lead with 2:34 to play. <\/p>\n
Yuta Watanabe got inside for a putback of a Thomas miss to push the cushion to six with under 1:49 left. The Nets closed it out from there but with some tense moments. The Nets finally were able to breathe easy when Andrew Nembhard missed a potentially game-tying three with two seconds left.<\/p>\n
At game’s end, there was a lot of happy talk from the owner to the coach to the players.<\/p>\n