Nets lose to Raptors, miss chance to move past 76ers and into top spot in East

Brooklyn is navigating the end of this season with a limited roster, with James Harden out indefinitely and Kevin Durant perpetually working himself back.

It’s easy to toss away the final month as meaningless. But there is some significance to the results, no matter how much they downplay the end of this funky, injury-plagued season.

The Nets entered Wednesday night’s 114-103 loss to the Raptors just 1/2 game below the Sixers for the top spot in the Eastern Conference. With Philadelphia falling at the same time to the red-hot Suns, Brooklyn missed an opportunity to leapfrog the Sixers for the top spot.

Why is this important beyond the pride and optics of winning the No. 1 seed? The Nets have been much better at home (23-7) than on the road (16-13). The same home-road discrepancy holds for the Sixers, who entered Wednesday 22-6 in Philadelphia, and 17-12 elsewhere.

If there’s a Game 7 in the Eastern Conference finals, the difference could be its location.

Brooklyn, with its glut of injuries, isn’t in a good position to catch Philly. But it’s certainly possible, especially with news Wednesday that Durant is a strong possibility to return by the weekend.

Against the Raptors on Wednesday night, the Nets ran out of steam and miracles. They held a 13-point advantage after the first quarter, then a two-point lead at the break. Toronto took control in the third quarter and never gave up the lead, even when the Nets made a mini-run near the finish. Brooklyn just didn’t have the energy or the talent to finish off a comeback.

Part of it was just bad timing. The Nets were playing on a second night of a back-to-back, still reeling from injuries. The Raptors have been an utter disappointment this season, a development that could be excused by their pandemic-forced relocation from Canada to Florida. But they’ve won four straight and flaunted a full-force squad, with Pascal Siakam returning from a two-game absence to play next to a Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet.

The Nets, on the other hand, were again shorthanded, undermanned, short-staffed, however you want to classify their seemingly season-long status. Kyrie Irving was again sensational with 28 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists, but got little help after Bruce Brown off the bench.

The Nets were up to 10 healthy players, one higher than the night prior. It forced Blake Griffin to not only play on the second night of a back-to-back, but also start at power forward. Griffin played just 19 minutes with nine points.