Jordi Fernandez’s kids, Bowie and Lluna, are in awe of Giannis Antetokounmpo, and the Nets coach admitted he feels the same way.
The Bucks superstar’s display was awesome, erasing the Nets’ hard-earned lead and handing them a 118-113 loss at Barclays Center.
The Nets (10-14) led by five with just over three minutes to play but conceded a 12-2 run and never recovered.
“Probably we have to stay home and try to guard Giannis one on one. I don’t know if we could … [but] I take responsibility for that,” Fernandez said. “It opened up the 3-point line and they’re a good 3-point shooting team. That’s what they’ve been doing lately. And they made the 3s.
“But the reality is, in the last three minutes of the third and in the last six minutes of the game, I believe it was a minus-19 for us. And our defense was atrocious. And if our guys that wear a Brooklyn Nets jersey don’t play hard defense, they don’t have a place in our roster.”
Point guard Dennis Schroder had 34 points and 11 assists, both game-highs, and held Damian Lillard to a fairly quiet 15.
But the Bucks’ other star — who has long been a target for the Nets — dominated.
Antetokounmpo had 33 points, 11 rebounds and huge plays down the stretch.
The Bucks (12-11) had struggled out of the gate this season, prompting questions of whether Antetokounmpo would ask out.
They opened just 2-8 but now have won 10 of the next 13.
Cam Johnson (26 points) had hit a 3 to put the Nets up 106-101 with 3:47 to play.
But they coughed up a 12-2 run to lose the lead and the game.
Antetokounmpo blocked Schroder.
Then after Schroder got blocked again, Antetokounmpo dunked on other end with a minute left to put the Bucks up by three.
Kris Middleton — in his second game of the season — hit two free throws to cap the run and leave the Nets down 113-108 with 28.1 seconds to go in regulation.
They couldn’t force overtime.
The Nets led by as much as a dozen and trailed by as much as seven, 32-25 a minute into the second quarter after Lillard found Bobby Portis for a 3-pointer.
The Nets were still down, 49-44, with 1:25 left in the half before they closed on an 8-2 run.
Schroder found Dorian Finney-Smith — in his first game back from a sprained ankle — for a 3-pointer, and then Claxton blocked Antetokounmpo at the rim.
Schroder cleared out against Middleton, got a foul and shooter’s bounce to go up 50-49 with half-a-minute left.
Antetokounmpo beat the shot clock with a baseline jumper, but Schroder’s floater just beat the buzzer and got another friendly bounce, sending the Nets into the locker room with a 52-51 lead.
It was knotted at 63-all with 7:27 in the third after an Antetokounmpo dunk.
But the Nets untied it with an 18-6 run over the next three minutes, eight of those points coming from Johnson.
Claxton’s layup capped the run and put the Nets up by a dozen with 3:57 in the third.
The Nets couldn’t hold the lead, falling behind 89-88 on another Portis 3.
But Johnson drilled one of his own against a 2-3 Bucks zone to spark a 10-4 run.
He capped it with a layup to put the Nets up, 98-93.
Fernandez won a challenge to erase a foul on Shake Milton and see Brook Lopez hit with an offensive foul.
Then, in the heights of absurdity, a successful challenge by Doc Rivers ended up seeing Johnson actually awarded a basket that gave the Nets a 100-95 lead.
They didn’t protect it.
