For Jordi Fernandez, Tuesday was a chance to see the Denver team he cut his teeth with. But for his Nets, it was a chance to test themselves against champions.
They came up agonizingly short, blowing a huge double-digit lead and falling, 144-139, in overtime before a sellout crowd of 17,926 at Barclays Center.
The Nets (1-3) head to the tail end of this back-to-back Wednesday night in Memphis stinging from having squandered a 17-point cushion.
“When you play against somebody that you know and have a lot of respect for, it gets better and better as a true competitor because there’s a relationship, there’s a respect. And for me, it’s a special game,” said Fernandez, who spent six years as Mike Malone’s assistant in Denver.
“But it’s not about me. … Players win games, players play basketball games, and the rest of my team, probably for them, it’s another rival team with very good players that we want to present a challenge. We want to win the game.”
Cam Thomas (team-high 26 points) had the first bucket in overtime, but the Nets conceded the next eight points and the momentum.
Nikola Jokic — who had a dominant triple-double — knotted it on free throws.
Then the Nuggets star had a put-back of his own miss, and after Thomas got blocked by Christian Braun, Jokic found Aaron Gordon for a layup that left Brooklyn down, 131-127, with 3:09 left in overtime.
Thomas missed a jumper and Jamal Murray padded the Denver lead to six. The rest was anticlimactic.
Dennis Schroder had 28 points and 13 assists — his most as a Net — shooting 10-of-18 overall and 5-of-11 from deep. But he was hardly alone.
With seven scorers in double figures, Brooklyn had a balanced attack.
It handed out 36 assists to just eight turnovers.
Jokic finished with 29 points, 16 assists and 18 rebounds, while Gordon added 24.
“Nikola is unbelievable, and he always finds out the way to be productive,” Fernandez said. “With a special player, you’ve got to show him different looks and play that game, be ready for a lot of coverages. He can score. He can assist. He’s a very good rebounder.
“It’s one of the biggest challenges in the NBA because he controls the whole game, makes his teammates better. He’s good on both ends. And that’s really good for our group because we haven’t seen that challenge yet.”
The Nuggets looked leggy, every bit the team playing the second night of a back-to-back after an overtime.
Down 13-12 after Jokic found Murray for a jumper, the Nets went on an extended 32-14 run that spanned the first and second quarters.
Nic Claxton’s layup off a Ziaire Williams feed capped the run and gave the Nets a 44-27 lead 1:11 into the second quarter. But it didn’t last.
Brooklyn still led 99-93 after Claxton’s midrange jumper with under a minute remaining in the third before conceding a 13-2 run that spanned into the fourth.
Russell Westbrook hit a 3-pointer to put the Nuggets up, 106-101, with 9:55 left.
The Nets didn’t fold, responding with eight unanswered of their own, capped by Westbrook missing a dunk and Williams’ layup going the other way for a 109-106 lead.
But Denver tied it at 112-all, 116-all and 118-all. And Gordon gave the Nuggets a 121-120 lead with 2:17 left.
Thomas had an ill-timed shot-clock violation but redeemed himself with a strong go-ahead drive with 1:23 to play.
And after they rebounded a Murray miss, Thomas hit a tough turnaround against Braun for a 124-121 edge with 33 seconds to go in regulation.
Jokic scored on a put-back, and Dorian Finney-Smith made just one of two free throws to leave the door cracked.
And Denver kicked it in, with Jokic getting position for a 5-foot hook shot with 8.8 seconds left in regulation.
Finney-Smith’s missed corner 3 relegated the Nets to overtime, where they couldn’t handle Jokic.