After putting up season highs of 40 points in the first quarter and 63 in the first half, the Nets — playing without Deron Williams, Brook Lopez and Andrei Kirilenko — petered out after the break Monday night, scoring 35 points in the second half and falling 108-98 to the Trail Blazers at Barclays Center.
The combination of a 19-6 run late in the third quarter and a 10-4 run to open the fourth allowed Portland (9-2), winner of seven straight games, to take its first lead of the game midway through the third and never relinquish it to send the Nets (3-7) to their fifth loss in their last six games.
No one better exemplified the up-and-down nature of the Nets' performance Monday night than Kevin Garnett. As they have in several games recently, the Nets made a clear attempt to get Garnett involved early, in the hopes of getting him out of his season-long shooting funk.
And, in the opening minutes, it looked like that was the case, as Garnett knocked down each of his first six shots — all jumpers — after going just 21-for-70 through his first eight games.
But Garnett, who sat out of Saturday's loss to the Clippers with a sprained right ankle, soon reverted to his previous form, missing 11 of his next 12 shots — including 10 in a row — before making one late in the fourth to finish 8-for-19 with a season-high 16 points.
His production mirrored that of the Nets, as outside of a brilliant performance from Shaun Livingston, who finished with 23 points playing in place of Williams, the Nets all faded as the game went on. Without Lopez's presence inside, it looked as if the Nets were forbidden from entering the paint, settling for one jump shot after another. After the Nets went 14-for-19 in the first quarter, those shots gradually stopped falling.
The young and energetic Blazers, meanwhile, nearly matched the hot start the Nets enjoyed, going 13-for-18 and 5-for-6 from 3-point range in the first quarter, before gradually asserting themselves behind 27 points and eight rebounds from LaMarcus Aldridge, 24 points from Wesley Matthews and 19 points and nine assists from Damian Lillard.
Though both teams slowed down offensively in the second quarter, the Nets maintained their lead until halftime behind a balanced attack led by eight points in the second quarter from Joe Johnson, the final two coming on free throws with 0.1 seconds left to send the Nets into the break with a 63-56 lead.
The Nets shot 50 percent from the field and 16-for-17 from the free-throw line before the break.
But as Garnett continued to cool off, missing his first four shots of the second half and committing a travel early in the third quarter, Portland finally took its first lead of the game just under the five-minute mark of the quarter after Wes Matthews got around Tyshawn Taylor for a layup to tie the game and Aldridge hit a turnaround jumper to give the Blazers a 69-67 lead.
Portland ended the third quarter with a 19-6 run capped by a runner by Mo Williams that made it 83-75 in the final seconds before Williams fouled Alan Anderson on a 3-pointer at the buzzer. Anderson made all three free throws to send the Nets into the final quarter down five.
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