Mikal Bridges’ 44 points not enough as Nets lose to lowly Magic

Mikal Bridges’ 44 points not enough as Nets lose to lowly Magic

ORLANDO, Fla. — Maybe the Nets were tired. Or maybe they couldn’t hit a jumper.

Or maybe the former led to the latter. The end result was the same, a desultory 119-106 loss to sorry the Magic on Sunday at Amway Center.

Mikal Bridges poured in 44 points, just one shy of his career-high set against Miami on Feb. 15, but the Nets shot just 40.7 percent as a team, and 8 of 35 from deep as they gave him no help.

The Nets (40-35) have lost six of seven and fell back into a flat-footed tie with Miami in their bid for the sixth and final guaranteed playoff berth in the Eastern Conference, ahead by only the head-to-head tiebreaker. They also stumbled two full games behind the fifth-place Knicks.

The Nets not only couldn’t build on the momentum of Saturday’s huge victory in Miami — when they beat the Heat to climb out of the precarious play-in — but apparently couldn’t recover from it. On a quick turnaround in this back-to-back, they got thoroughly outplayed by a lowly Magic team they’d beaten Nov. 28.

“Totally different team than we saw in November at our place,” coach Jacque Vaughn had warned. “With the addition of Markelle Fultz, just their numbers overall as a team is pretty impressive.


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Nets forward Mikal Bridges scored 44 points in a loss to the Magic on Sunday.AP

“Wins that they’ve been able to garner, the length they have, the ability to turn people over, the ability to drive the basketball from multiple positions will give us some problems. Great test for us to let [Saturday] night go. Appreciate what we did, but accomplish this goal of getting a win [Sunday].”

Brooklyn didn’t appear to have a mental hangover from its huge win over the Heat one night earlier. The Nets’ woes seemed more physical, tipping off just 22 hours after their game in Miami had and wearing down as the night went on.

“This is an interesting one. The late night in Miami then to turn around [at] 6 p.m. Very thoughtful in how we’re going to use our rotation. We’ll be smart about using everybody to try to get through this game,” said Vaughn, who played without Royce O’Neale, Ed Sumner, Seth Curry and Ben Simmons.


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Cam Thomas takes the ball to the basket for the Nets on Sunday.USA TODAY Sports

“Ed basically was our backup point guard for Spencer, so we’ll need another ball-handler out there, so that piece of it. Then it takes it to another level if Royce can’t play. Then that might lengthen [the rotation] even more.”

Orlando put eight players in double figures, led by Cole Anthony’s 21.

Brooklyn had just three in double figures, Cam Thomas (18 points) and Cam Johnson (10 points) the only help for Bridges.

The Nets lead 38-37 on an alley oop by Day’Ron Sharpe midway through the second quarter. But it was the last lead they would hold.

The Nets allowed an 11-2 run and never recovered.


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Cole Anthony drives against the Nets on Sunday.AP

Rookie Paolo Banchero’s layup off a Franz Wagner feed capped the run and left Brooklyn in an eight-point hole with four minutes left in the half.

The deficit was 60-51 at intermission, and 92-74 after three quarters on an Anthony floater.

Orlando went into the fourth quarter with seven — yes, seven — scorers in double figures. Brooklyn had a grand total of one, Bridges left hung out to dry with little to no help offensively. The deficit reached 20 in the final period.

Brooklyn is 0-9 when Bridges fails to reach 25 points, and going in Orlando coach Jamahl Mosley had called slowing him the key to victory.

“Stop him from scoring 25 points. It’s going to be by committee,” Mosley said. “He’s done such a great job for them obviously since the trade, his ability to get easy quick baskets, making 3s at a nice clip and then his ability to get to the free-throw line; he’s done a great job with that and being able to bow up and get fouls. He just knows how to play the game.”