An incredibly hard-fought, rough battle against the league’s preeminent team, that went down to a loose ball in overtime under the Spurs basket

Yes, the Nets led by 15 in the second half and still went to overtime, so the fact that it came down to the final possessions seems bad at the outset. But this wasn’t a case of the Nets “not making it easy” on themselves, it was that the Spurs are an incredibly good basketball team, and they’ll make it hard on almost anyone, certainly a 7-9 Eastern Conference squad that hasn’t beaten a team over .500 all year.

The Nets didn’t defend the corner well, and had trouble defending down-screens, which is what led to Danny Green’s three-pointer to tie the game at 88 with 2.4 seconds left. But keep in mind that the Nets also manufactured open shots against a tough defensive team, held their own against Tim Duncan & Tony Parker defensively for most of the night, and didn’t let the Spurs turn this game into a blowout like they so easy have on many nights.