NEW YORK _ The Nets' playoff hopes are hanging by a slender thread as they struggle through a brutal finishing stretch of the schedule. For the second straight game, they dug an early hole and couldn't climb out before suffering a 115-105 loss to the Raptors on Wednesday night at Barclays Center.
Their second straight loss dropped the Nets to 39-40 and fell into a seventh-place tie in the Eastern Conference with the Magic, who defeated the Knicks. Fortunately for the Nets, Miami lost to the Celtics and dropped to ninth.
Trailing by 12 entering the final period, Russell scored nine straight points at the end of an 11-4 Nets surge to cut the deficit to 94-89 with 9:59 to play. Plenty of time by Nets standards.
But a trio of 3s by Pascal Siakim, Serge Ibaka and Kyle Lowry began a 12-5 Raptors spurt to restore a 108-96 cushion. But Russell once again responded by burying three straight 3-pointers as the Nets trimmed the difference to 110-105 with 1:24 to go.
They needed stops to come all the way back, but Ibaka got an offensive rebound and scored before Russell missed a fourth 3-point try. After two empty possessions by both teams, Russell had the ball stolen by Fred VanVleet and he made the first of two foul shots for a 113-105 lead with 38 seconds left.
Russell topped the Nets with 27 points and had seven rebounds and six assists, and they got 14 points from Spencer Dinwiddie and 12 each from Jarrett Allen and DeMarre Carroll. The Raptors (56-23) were led by Siakim with 28 points and 10 rebounds and got 26 points from Kawhi Leonard and 23 from Ibaka.
Coming into the game, the Nets' seventh-place playoff status in the Eastern Conference looked precarious because of a schedule that pitted them against the second-place Raptors followed by road games at first-place Milwaukee and fourth-place Indiana and a home finale against eighth-place Miami.
After digging a 22-point first-quarter hole in their previous loss to the Bucks, coach Kenny Atkinson stressed the need to get off to a good start. "Like the Milwaukee game, we weren't ready from the start," Atkinson said. "It's huge right from the get go. First group's got to be ready. You could argue that determined the game the other night, so, it's important we get off to a good start."
Talk about famous last words. After taking an early 13-9 edge, the Nets allowed the Raptors to go on an extended 27-9 run to take a 36-22 lead when Siakim hit a jumper to open the second quarter. In the middle of that stretch, the Raptors made five straight 3-point attempts, including three by Ibaka.
The Nets managed a 20-12 push that included seven points from Russell to cut their deficit to five but reach halftime trailing, 57-50. After a 3-for-11 effort from 3-point range in the first half, they were searching for an offensive spark to get them going against a team that virtually is assured of the second seed in the East and was just trying to stay sharp for the playoffs.
With 8:31 left in the third period and the Nets down by 12, Atkinson reached into his tool box and inserted Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Treveon Graham in search of defensive toughness and physicality. The immediate results weren't good as the nets turned the ball over three straight times, including two offensive fouls by Hollis-Jefferson, who also was hit with a technical foul Leonard converted for a 74-61 lead.
The Nets twice pulled within nine points in the third period, but couldn't maintain any traction. When former Net Jeremy Lin drilled what the referees credited as a buzzer-beating 3-pointer, it appeared Toronto had taken its biggest lead at 93-78. But the basket was wiped out by replay review, so the Nets were only 12 down heading to the final period.
