Array
For almost four quarters, the Nets hardly missed Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
But the new-look Nets collapsed down the stretch in a 101-98 loss to the 76ers that ended with Spencer Dinwiddie’s 3-point shot, which would have sent the game into overtime, coming just after the buzzer sounded.
Joel Embiid gave the Sixers the lead with a pair of free throws with five seconds left in regulation. Then, with a chance to put the Nets back up, Mikal Bridges — the key piece to the Durant trade and terrific for much of the night — missed a shot.
James Harden, booed by the sellout crowd at Barclays Center for much of the game, hit another two free throws with under a second left. That gave Philadelphia (36-19) a three-point lead, and the Nets (33-23) couldn’t get it to overtime.
In front of an announced sellout crowd of 17,732, the Nets tried to win their second straight game since Durant was traded to Phoenix to complete the dismantling of the roster that began when Irving was traded to Dallas earlier last week.
“It’s the beginning chapter of a new era, really,’’ head coach Jacque Vaughn said before the game. “This group gets to tell their own story, really. That’s what we’re gonna allow them to do.”
An off-balance Cam Thomas jumper put the Nets up 96-87 with 6:52 left in the fourth quarter, but the Sixers scored the next eight points.
A pair of free throws by Harden made it a three-point game with 5:27 to go and an Embiid fallaway jumper made it 96-95 with 3:56 remaining.
