Brooklyn Nets wings Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson have been the main sources of offense for Brooklyn in this first-round series against the Philadelphia 76ers. Through two games, Bridges is averaging 25.5 points per game while Johnson is averaging 23 points per contest. Despite both of their scoring prowess, the Nets are down 2-0 in the series.
In Monday’s Game 2 96-84 loss to the 76ers, Bridges had 21 points on 6-of-15 shooting from the field and 2-of-8 from three-point land while Johnson had 28 points on 11-of-19 shooting from the field and 5-of-11 shooting from three-point land. Both players had great first halves (Bridges in Game 1, Johnson in Game 2), but both players could not follow up those impressive first halves with similar second halves.
In a series where Philadelphia is the better team, Brooklyn has to find a way to bridge the gap between. The Nets have tried to double-team Joel Embiid to get the ball out of his hands, but that has just led to other 76ers going off. In Game 2, defense was not the issue for Brooklyn as much as it was offense and scoring consistently.
In the second half, Brooklyn shot just 35% from the field while Philadelphia 48% and that shooting discrepancy was the difference in the game. The Nets have had stretches this season where their offense goes hot and cold and depending on how well their offense was performing, the result was usually a direct correlation to their offensive performance. Bridges had this to say about what caused the lopsided second half:
“They (the 76ers) just came out, second half with zone, messed (us) up a little bit. But, yeah, they just came out, had a little momentum and then you know, ran with it a little bit from there.”
Johnson gave more of a specific answer as to what happened in the second half to turn the tide to the 76ers:
“It wasn’t really a defensive issue as much as almost kind of offensive, you know? You’re planning against a set defense every time. They’re in that zone, kind of slowed us down a little bit. And, only had 14 points in that third quarter, you know, and playoff games like this, those you know, when they feel like they’re getting stops, that gives them juice. It’s all about trying to take that away. So, we didn’t do a good enough job of that, coming out at half.”
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