A History of Nets Overtime Playoff Basketball

April 26, 2003, OT:
New Jersey Nets 114, Milwaukee Bucks 119

JEFFERSON REDD — Richard Jefferson dunking two of his 28 points. (AP)

The 2003 NBA Finals run saw two overtime games for the second-seeded Nets. The first came on the road, in Game 4 of the first round series against the seventh-seed Milwaukee Bucks. Not quite the 14-point-in-three-minutes collapse of the 2013 Brooklyn Nets, the Bucks squandered a 14 point lead in the final 6½ minutes of regulation, and the Nets forced OT. The Nets may have actually won the game, had they not missed nine free throws in the fourth, including Martin going 0-3 from the charity stripe in the closing minutes. For the game, the Nets had a 47-28 free throw edge on Milwaukee, but only made nine more free throws.

With the game knotted at 100, Gary Payton blocked Jason Kidd’s jumper at the buzzer to send the game to overtime. The Bucks never trailed in OT, outscoring the Nets 19-14 to even the series at two. Toni Kukoc, who played against the Nets in the Bulls OT game in 98, came off the bench to lead the Bucks with 23 points. Despite missing free throws in the fourth, Kenyon Martin led the Nets with 30 points and RJ chipped in with 28. The Nets would go on to win the next two games for the series win, 4-2, as the NBA changed the first round to a best-of-7 format from the previous best of 5 format in 2003.

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Next: May 12, 2003

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