Bucks 103, Nets 96
NEW YORK -- Guard Jerryd Bayless paced a balanced scoring attack with 26 points, and center Greg Monroe added 23 points and 13 rebounds, leading the Milwaukee Bucks to a 103-96 victory over the Brooklyn Nets on Monday night at the Barclays Center.
The Bucks outscored the Nets 8-0 down the stretch to secure the win.
It was the first victory of the season after three losses for the Bucks, who played without four injured key players.
Milwaukee forward Giannis Antetokounmpo added 21 points and eight rebounds. Forward Khris Middleton had 17 points, including a clutch jumper with 1:13 remaining in the fourth quarter, giving the Bucks the lead for good.
Bucks guard Michael Carter-Williams sank one free throw with 31 seconds left to push the lead to 99-96, and Monroe snared a rebound of a miss by Nets guard Jarrett Jack. Bayless canned two free throws with 19.6 seconds left to ice the victory.
Brook Lopez paced six players in double figures for the Nets (0-4). Lopez had 18 points, followed by Jack with 15 points, forward Joe Johnson and guard Bojan Bogdanovic with 14 each, forward Thaddeus Young with 13 and guard Shane Larkin with 10.
After a 33-33 first quarter, the Bucks turned up the heat in the second quarter as the Nets went ice cold from the floor, connecting on just six of 23 shots in the second period. Milwaukee led 59-48 at the half.
Johnson hit a nice fallaway jumper to cap a 9-2 run, bringing the Nets back to within 61-57 with 8:21 left in the third.
Center Andrea Bargnani completed a three-point play with 1.5 seconds left in the third quarter that drew the Nets even at 80-80, erasing Milwaukee's 11-point lead in the process.
The Nets grabbed their lone lead of the second half, 94-92, on two free throws from Bogdanovic with 3:24 remaining, but the Nets managed just two points the rest of the way.
NEW YORK: Former President Bill Clinton was in attendance, sitting in the front row. ... Milwaukee was without G O.J. Mayo, G Tyler Ennis, F John Henson and second-year F Jabari Parker, the former Duke All-American who missed most of last season after ACL surgery. Parker is supposed to make his season debut Wednesday night against Philadelphia. ... The Nets entered the game connecting on just 21 percent from 3-point range, which is ranked 30th in the league. ... Herb Turetzky kept score for the 2,000th game for the Nets on Monday night. Turetzky, in his 49th season as the official scorer, has been keeping score for the franchise since the ABA days at the Commack Ice Palace. Turetzky has kept score for a 1,314 consecutive games, a span of 31 complete seasons. ... The Nets and Bucks played twice last season at the Barclays Center, with both games going to triple overtime, the only time in NBA history that two teams played to three overtimes in the same season.