DALLAS — Kevin Durant hadn’t missed a free throw since Steve Nash was Nets coach, since before Kyrie Irving’s latest drama. He had made 61 straight when he went to the line with a chance to sink three, with an opportunity to force overtime.
And after making the first, he missed the second. His shoulders sagged, his head slumped. And his Nets lost 96-94 to the Mavericks before a sellout crowd of 20,011 at American Airlines Center.
After Durant (26 points, four assists, four rebounds) missed the third on purpose, the Nets did get the offensive rebound. But Royce O’Neale drove into heavy contact and turned the ball over to Dallas star Luka Doncic (game-high 36 points, six assists, six boards and two steals).
“I gotta make that. I gotta make that. That’s the game. We’d probably still be playing right now. F–k, man. I felt like I went through my whole routine. Damn, I should have shot it a little stronger,” said Durant, who hadn’t missed since Oct. 26 at Milwaukee. “It sucks. Not much more I can say about it.”
In truth, it wasn’t Durant who cost the Nets (4-7), but an offensive dry spell against Dallas’ zone defense in the fourth quarter.
The Nets led by four but coughed up a 14-0 run and never led again.
“They went zone on us a little bit, made us kind of recalibrate a little bit. And we did. We settled down, we got some good looks. We executed at the end of the game. Put ourselves again in a position to win,” said interim coach Jacque Vaughn, who replaced Steve Nash in the days since Durant’s last missed free throw.
“Give them credit for going zone; that kind of slowed us down a little bit. Then we figured it out and we got good looks. The looks that we did get from the guys who shot the basketball. We’ll take it.”
They took them, but missed them.
The Nets led 78-74 after Durant’s 16-foot step back jumper with 8:19 left. But they committed four turnovers and missed their only shot during that dry spell.
That Mavs’ run was punctuated by Durant getting wound up and getting a technical. He was jawing with ex-Net Theo Pinson, and ended up pushing Josh Green and getting whistled, only to keep going at it with Pinson.
By the time Green sank his foul shot, the Nets were in an 88-78 hole.
“I wasn’t pissed off. I was having an amazing time, a great time. I love talking s–t to fans, other teams, coaches,” Durant said. “And they sense that it’s a healthy thing. It’s not like I’m upset wanting to fight Theo, or pissed off at him for talking to me. I was having an amazing time and no better place for me to be at this point in my life where I was.”
Pinson had told Durant he was going to have to be Magic Johnson to shake free of their junk defenses, and the Nets star couldn’t pull off any tricks Monday.
“Yeah, they don’t want nobody in this league want to see one. Let me go one-on-one or want to see me on my spot. So they’re gonna throw three or four people at me, play zone up when I get the ball,” Durant said. “And I was just telling them, ‘This is how great I am.’ It’s just a simple fact when you put that much attention on one player, I’m playing a team sport, it shows how great I am. So he understood.”
They never got closer than four until Cam Thomas (19 points) hit a fadeaway 3-pointer with a half-minute left in regulation.
With the Nets down 96-93, Durant drew a foul on Reggie Bullock attempting a 3 with 5.6 seconds to play. He made the first, but missed the second. And when Doncic stopped O’Neale’s drive, it was over.
