Nets go cold late in crushing overtime loss to Bucks

The Nets endured two hard fouls but the gut-punch loss hurt most.

Kevin Durant missed game-winning shots at the end of regulation and overtime on Thursday night as the Nets could not recover from a blown nine-point lead in the final three minutes of the fourth quarter and lost 120-119 to the Bucks at the Barclays Center.

Durant sank all three free throws for a 119-118 lead after he was hip-checked to the ground shooting a 3-pointer with 8.7 seconds remaining in overtime. He stayed on the floor for a while as the crowd held its breath, then rose to his feet as the exhales turned into an “M-V-P” chant.

But two-time MVP and defending-champion Giannis Antetokounmpo must have thought the crowd was calling for him. He charged down the floor and drew a foul, shrugging off a career’s worth of struggles at the line to knock down a pair and finish off a 44-point performance.

The lead changed hands three times and the score was tied twice in the fourth quarter of the final regular-season rematch of last season’s thrilling seven-game playoff series.

It seemed the Nets were in total command with a nine-point lead and three minutes left in regulation — a result of a frenzied span turned heated when Bruce Brown tracked down an errant pass and had an empty half of the court ahead. But he slowed down as if preparing for an emphatic dunk, which allowed a hustling Khris Middleton to catch up off the turnover.

Middleton hammered an airborne Brown on the wrist, leading to a hard tumble and the teams came together. The crowd rained boos on Middleton, who was assessed a flagrant-2 foul upon replay review and ejected from the game by rule, leaving Antetokounmpo without his best wingman.

By the time Brown sank both of his free throws and Durant continued the surge with an alley-oop dunk off a pass from Kyrie Irving, the Nets held a 108-99 lead. It all evaporated quickly, capped by Antetokounmpo knocking down a 3-pointer to tie the score at 110-110 with 18 seconds remaining, sending the game into overtime.