NEW YORK — The Brooklyn Nets welcomed the Philadelphia 76ers to Barclays Center on Thursday for Game 3 of their first-round playoff series and lost 102-97. Philadelphia leads the best-of-seven playoff series 3-0.
For the Nets, Mikal Bridges had 26 points and five assists while Spencer Dinwiddie had 20 points and seven assists. Nic Claxton had 18 points and Cam Johnson had 17 points.
For the 76ers, Tyrese Maxey had 25 points and three rebounds while James Harden had 21 points and four assists. Tobias Harris had 15 points and Joel Embiid had 14 points.
In the first half, fireworks started early when an altercation arose between Embiid and Claxton after Claxton finished an alley-oop dunk over Embiid. Embiid fell and Claxton stood over him which made Embiid kick Claxton. Embiid was called for a flagrant one foul while Claxton was whistled for a technical foul.
After that altercation, the game finally got under control, but Philadelphia showed that they could handle the double-teams on Embiid. Once again, the 76ers made a living on second-chance points and points off turnovers along with Brooklyn having trouble scoring consistently.
In the second half, Brooklyn got back into the game with an early run. The Nets were able to show that they can play winning basketball in the second half as they took advantage of a hobbled Embiid. However, things took a turn with 8:48 left in the fourth quarter when Claxton was given his second technical foul for staring at Embiid after a dunk. Claxton was ejected from the game and from there, Philadelphia finished the game on a 21-10 run.
Here are your Nets player grades for Game 3: