Every game counts, and the Nets just chalked one.
On the second leg of a back-to-back, in a game with explicit playoff implications, the Nets ran out of gas at Orlando’s Amway Center and lost to the Magic, 119-106.
It marked Brooklyn’s sixth loss in their last seven games following Saturday’s convincing victory over the Miami Heat.
The Nets are now tied with the Heat (40-34) but retain their standing as the Eastern Conference’s sixth seed because they hold the tiebreaker, having swept Miami in the season series, 4-0.
If only the Nets could say the same about the lottery-bound Magic, who own a bottom-six record in all of basketball.
Head coach Jacque Vaughn emptied the bench with just under four minutes left in the fourth quarter, as the Magic led by 16 and responded to a flurry of futile Nets runs.
It was a game the Nets lacked punch from the opening tipoff: Brooklyn built an early five-point lead thanks to Mikal Brides’ hot shooting, but Orlando’s ability to pound the paint crippled a Nets team still searching for help on the inside. The Magic scored 58 points in the paint to the Nets’ 38 at the rim.
Bridges exploded for 44 points on 13-of-22 shooting from the field and six-of-nine shooting from the three-point line. It marked the second highest-scoring game of his career and tied a career-high in threes made in a game. Bridges also shot 12-of-12 from the line, career-highs in both attempts and makes.
Aside from Cam Thomas — who replaced Seth Curry (personal reasons) and Edmond Sumner (right hip contusion) — however, Bridges got little help. Thomas scored 18 off the bench on 7-of-16 shooting from the field, but only one other Net scored in double figures.
Spencer Dinwiddie missed all 11 of his shot attempts, Dorian Finney-Smith shot one-of-seven from the field, Cam Johnson shot one-of-five from downtown, and the Nets couldn’t get a flow offensively.
The defense also faltered, allowing a bottom-third Orlando offense to score a combined 68 points in the second and third quarters. The Magic led by as many as 20.
The Nets now have seven games left on the schedule with two days off before Wednesday’s matchup against the Houston Rockets, another opponent with a poor record the Nets will have to close out.
In Brooklyn’s favor, six of the Nets’ last seven games are at Barclays Center. Working against the Nets: their season finale is against Joel Embiid, James Harden and the No. 3-seeded Philadelphia 76ers.
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