Brandon Jennings, Milwaukee Bucks overshadow a career night from Kris Humphries; New Jersey Nets lose 105-99: NBA
On a night when Kris Humphries erupted with a career-high 31 points and 18 rebounds, Milwaukee Bucks, led by 34 points, seven rebounds and seven assists from Brandon Jennings used a strong second half to squeak out a 104-99 win.
Humphries, leading the team in the absence of an injures Deron Williams, had a 21 point – 10 rebound first half and completely neutralized last weeks’ Eastern Conference player of the week, Ersan Ilyasova, reducing him to four
points and three rebounds. With him firing on all cylinders, the Nets raced off to an 8-2 start and then stretched their advantage to 30-20 deep inside the first quarter, before the Bucks reeled off a 7-2 run to make it 27-32.
12 seconds inside the second frame, Ilyasova made it a three point game, but one and half minute later, the Nets opened up a 14-5 spurt, capped by a turnaround jumper from Humphries to take a 48-36 lead.
Jennings made a layup on the next Bucks possession and Humphries went to the bench after the time out that followed. The short break hampered the Nets momentum and even though Kris returned shortly afterwards, the Bucks outscored
them in the remaining passage of the second and the first 2:23 of the third to close in at 55-56.
The Nets responded swiftly with an 11-3 burst for a 67-58 advantage. They held onto the nine point edge till the last 1:20 of the third, before Milwaukee stormed back into contention with nine unchallenged points, tying the game
at 73.
Drew Gooden, who finished the game with 23 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists, was huge in that frame with 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting.
Jennings struck twice from the land of three early in the fourth and by the time, he knocked down another one with 4:01 left on the clock, the Bucks had pushed their lead to 92-86. Two and a half minutes later, a Mike Dunleavy
triple took the lead into double figures, 99-89, and the Bucks were never threatened again.
The Nets held the edge in the overall shooting (48.7 – 46.7 percent), but managed only 4-of-17 from distance as compared to 10-of-25 from the Bucks. Nets coach Avery Johnson rued the second half performance of his team after the
game;
"We didn't come out of the locker room after halftime with the right mindset."
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