Nets crumble late and lose Game 3 to Sixers, 102-97

Spencer Dinwiddie looked at the scoreboard, the time left on the clock, and slapped his hands in frustration.

Brooklyn’s starting point guard just blew it — and he knew it.

Dinwiddie went to the foul line with the Nets down three and had an opportunity to make Thursday’s Game 3 in Brooklyn a one-point game. The first free throw bounced on the rim four times before falling into the net.

The second clanked off the rim into Sixer possession.

And on the next possession after the Nets got a defensive stop, Dinwiddie advanced the ball and blew by Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey for a layup that would have tied the game.

By the time he let it go from his hands, Sixers’ presumptive MVP Joel Embiid rotated over for the rejection.

And on the ensuing possession, after P.J. Tucker missed a free throw that kept it a one-possession game, and after a Jacque Vaughn timeout for a drawn-up play, veteran guard Royce O’Neale had his pass intercepted by De’Anthony Melton, who took the ball the length of the floor to finish with a dunk that gave the Sixers a five-point lead.

Ball game. The Nets had their chances. They couldn’t take advantage and lost, 102-97, into an 3-0 series deficit no team in NBA history has ever overcome.

If the Nets needed a saving grace in their first-round playoff series against the Philadelphia 76ers, it came in the form of an unlikely whistle at the bottom of the third quarter in Game 3 on Thursday.

Ex-Nets star turned 76ers point guard James Harden drove into O’Neale with less than a minute left in the third period and made fist-to-groin contact officials deemed an offensive foul.

When O’Neale stayed on the ground, hunched over in pain, officials went to the booth to review whether or not the play qualified as a hostile act.

It did: They assessed Harden a flagrant foul penalty two and tossed him from the game.

Just moments later, starting center Nic Claxton was also ejected for picking up his second technical foul. Both came in the form of taunting Embiid after highlight-reel finishes.

[ Nets Notebook: Cam Thomas minutes would take away from someone else, says Jacque Vaughn ]

In the first quarter, Claxton stepped over Embiid after a one-handed alley-oop finish sent the Sixers’ big man tumbling to the ground. At the top of the fourth, Claxton dunked on Embiid then stared him down for several seconds. Officials immediately tossed the fourth-year big man from the game.

Thursday’s showdown in front of a sold-out crowd at Barclays Center was a must-win for a Nets team that entered the series already facing long odds as a No. 6 seed attempting to upset a third-seeded Sixers team with championship expectations. Those odds worsened when the Sixers won both Games 1 and 2 at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center.

[ Sixers adjustments stifle Nets in 96-84 Game 2 loss ]

Only 7% of teams to lose the first two games of an NBA playoff series have come back to win the series.

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The Nets aren’t on pace to be an outlier.

They did, however, give yet another valiant effort, choosing to stick to their defensive game plan: stop the run at all costs.

Vaughn likes to use football analogies for his defensive game plans, and against a Sixers team loaded with offensive weapons, he knew his squad would have to learn to live with giving up something.

What they settled on was special teams: The Nets figured they would have more of an opportunity to secure a victory forcing other players not named Embiid to beat them in a game. For the third straight night, they held Embiid below his season average of 33.7 points per game, and for the second straight game, they held the superstar big man to 20 points or less.

And for the second straight night, the Nets died on the special teams hill: Maxey scored 25 points and shot five-of-eight from downtown. Tobias Harris hit a pair of threes, as did Melton, who added 13 off the bench, none more important than the dunk created from an intercepted pass that put the dagger in the coffin late in the fourth quarter.

Mikal Bridges scored 26 points on 26 shot attempts, and Dinwiddie finished with 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the foul line.

It wasn’t enough, and now the Nets find themselves in the endgame. Game 4 at Barclays Center on Saturday could be their last game of the season. If they win, the series will shift back to Philadelphia for Game 5.