The Nets had just a Big 1 to the Bucks’ Big 3, but two big runs in the second half Saturday night were enough to knock off the defending champs.
A four-minute stretch in the third quarter, during which the Nets nearly blew the doors off of Fiserv Forum, and a strong closing four-plus minutes of the game lifted the undermanned Nets to a 126-123 win in Milwaukee.
Kyrie Irving, playing for the first time in two weeks because the Nets had four straight games in New York City around the All-Star break, scored a season-high 38 points and helped key both second-half runs.
The Nets outscored the Bucks 23-4 during a dominant stretch in the third quarter to take a 13-point lead, but the Bucks withstood that punch and came back to take a 112-105 lead with under five minutes left in the game.
That’s when the Nets whipped up one last spurt, using an 8-0 run to regain the lead and closing the game on a 21-11 run. A pair of blocks from Andre Drummond and…