Nets say Rockets gave them advice before historic upset over Bucks

“They [the Rockets] gave us a few tips, and we took that to heart,” veteran guard Garrett Temple said after Brooklyn’s shocking win.

On Tuesday afternoon at the NBA “bubble,” the Brooklyn Nets (32-35) pulled off one of the biggest betting upsets in league history with a 119-116 victory (box score) over the Milwaukee Bucks (54-14).

Besides the large discrepancy in records, Brooklyn’s roster for the NBA restart has been ravaged by injuries and player defections. The Nets traveled to Florida without Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Spencer Dinwiddie, DeAndre Jordan, Taurean Prince, and Wilson Chandler, and they were without Caris LeVert, Joe Harris, and Jarrett Allen on Tuesday due to injuries or rest. In short, they were missing their top eight scorers.

Making matters worse, one of their top roster replacements — Jamal Crawford — left Tuesday’s game early due to a hamstring strain.

So, how did the Nets still win, as an underdog of nearly 20 points?

Veteran guard Garrett Temple, who scored 19 points and hit five 3-pointers, credited the Houston Rockets — who defeated the Bucks on Sunday — with a bonus assist. Temple’s postgame comments:

Honestly, we stay in the same hotel as the Houston Rockets, and we talked to them by the pool yesterday. We told them we were playing Milwaukee, and asked them things that they did. We saw that they beat [the Bucks], and obviously they’re very undersized, that’s how they play. So they gave us a few tips, and we took that to heart.

Like the Rockets, Brooklyn made 21 shots from 3-point range versus the larger Bucks, giving them a clear math advantage. Temple also credited his team’s fast pace for their success, which Houston used Sunday.

Furthermore, the smaller Nets had only seven turnovers and forced 18, similar to Houston’s nine turnovers and Milwaukee’s 22 on Sunday. That allowed both teams to overcome a double-digit rebounding deficit.

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According to The Action Network, Tuesday’s result was the biggest NBA upset by point spread in at least 25 years. (It could be more, but 1995 is the earliest year that Action has reliable NBA betting data for.)

It is worth noting that with the benefit of hindsight, the upset wasn’t quite as big as the point spread might make it seem. What oddsmakers didn’t know going in was that the Bucks, who are essentially locked in as the East’s No. 1 seed, wouldn’t take the game all that seriously.

Unlike Sunday’s game, which head coach Mike Budenholzer clearly wanted to win, Tuesday’s contest featured a different approach. Starting center Brook Lopez, who had 23 points and 12 rebounds versus Houston, didn’t play at all for the Bucks. All-Star forwards Khris Middleton and Giannis Antetokounmpo only played 15 minutes each. No starter went more than 20 minutes, and most rested for the entire second half.

Then again, the Nets led by eight points at halftime, even with nearly all the regulars (other than Lopez) playing for the Bucks in the first half.

There’s long been an apparent rivalry between Antetokounmpo and Rockets star James Harden, and perhaps Sunday’s intense game added to it. If there’s a bubble rematch between the sides, it would have to come in the 2020 NBA Finals — and it wouldn’t be short on storylines.

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