NEW YORK _ The Nets insist they are not looking over their shoulders and are not waiting for their injured players to return and rescue them. Still, coach Kenny Atkinson said on Monday that it was "good timing" that Caris LeVert and Allen Crabbe will practice Tuesday with the Long Island Nets.
That didn't help the undermanned Nets on Monday against the Milwaukee Bucks, the team with the best record in the NBA. In front of a Barclays Center crowd that included former President Bill Clinton, the Nets suffered their third loss in a row, 113-94.
The Bucks (39-13), who were paced by the omnipresent Giannis Antetokounmpo (30 points, 15 rebounds, 9 assists, 3 blocks), have won 10 of 11.
Malcolm Brogdon added 16 points and Eric Bledsoe scored 15 for Milwaukee.
The Nets (28-27), who have lost four of five, were once again without LeVert, Crabbe, Spencer Dinwiddie, Jared Dudley and added a newcomer to the injured list in Joe Harris, who was out with a right hip injury.
So once again the Nets had to dip into their depth as Shabazz Napier started in place of Harris.
"We've had to use them a lot," Atkinson said of his reserves. "Great opportunity. They're good guys and good players and pretty much everybody that's come off the bench has stepped up. Even the G League guys. It's just great. I think our depth is one of our strengths _ a big strength of ours."
Napier was the Nets' second-leading scorer with 15 points. D'Angelo Russell had 18. Theo Pinson (10 points) was the only other Net in double figures.
The Nets took 42 3-pointers. They missed 37 of them.
The absences are taking a toll on the scoreboard and in the standings. The Nets have four games left before the All-Star break, but Atkinson insisted before this one that his players aren't obsessing about the injury woes.
"I think the confidence is so high in there that those guys _ it's funny, I think we (coaches) worry and the media worries and those guys in there, they don't blink an eye," Atkinson said. "They all think they're really good players. ... We never talk about it. There's no, 'Hey, guys, we've got to bring it' or 'we've got guys out.' No. We pay 17 guys, so we're ready to roll."
The Nets shot just 6-for-25 (24 percent) in the first quarter and missed all 10 of their 3-point attempts. The Bucks didn't shoot much better (7-for-26 from the field, 2-for-11 from 3), but Milwaukee took a 23-17 lead into the second quarter.
The Bucks used a 15-2 run early in the second to go up by as much as 16. The Nets' poor shooting continued _ 24.4 percent through two quarters _ but they still got the deficit back under double digits and trailed 51-42 going into halftime.
Antetokounmpo, who had 20 points in the half, nearly added two more when he went end-to-end for a gorgeous swooping layup _ but it was just after the buzzer and was waved off.
It didn't matter. The Bucks took total control in the third quarter, going up by as much as 25 points, and went into the fourth with an 87-64 advantage.
