USA TODAY Sports<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nHarden found rookie Kessler Edwards for a 3-pointer and an early 14-13 lead with 7:53 left in the first. And Harden\u2019s free throw 22 seconds later put the Nets up 16-14.<\/p>\n
But they coughed up a 9-2 run to fall behind by nine. A Booker pull-up left the Nets trailing 25-16, and they spent the rest of the first half chasing Phoenix.<\/p>\n
A well-oiled Suns machine that was absolutely clinical in its actions carved up the Nets\u2019 defense. The Nets trailed 39-29 after the first quarter, in which Phoenix shot 71.4 percent and Booker scored 14 points.<\/p>\n
At halftime, the Nets trailed 65-58, but they came out of the locker room scoring seven unanswered points to open the third quarter. Edwards capped the run and knotted the score on a hook shot with 9:15 left in the third.<\/p>\n
The Nets actually took the lead, at 70-69 on Patty Mills\u2019 left-wing 3-pointer. But that advantage was all too brief.<\/p>\n
This time, the Nets were on the wrong end of a 7-0 run. Mikal Bridges\u2019 driving layup put Phoenix back ahead 76-70.<\/p>\n
The Nets were still in contact, and they trailed just 78-74 with under four minutes left in the third when Harden turned the corner and drove to the rim. But after JaVale McGee snatched the All-Star\u2019s floater out of the air, every Net on the court protested and argued for a goaltending call that never came.<\/p>\n
What did come was a Phoenix fast-break the other way. Booker finished the break with a bucket, and just like that, the Suns heated back up. A 10-2 run left the Nets trailing 88-76.<\/p>\n
Cam Johnson\u2019s 3-pointer pushed the deficit to 12 and Nash called for a timeout with 2:25 left in the third.<\/p>\n
Irving led a comeback that proved too little, too late. He had nine points in the first 2:58 of the fourth quarter to pull the Nets to within three, at 97-94. But Phoenix answered with a 6-0 run to kill the momentum.<\/p>\n
Bridges sandwiched a pair of and-ones around missed layups by Irving and Nic Claxton. And after Bridges sank the free throw to complete the second and-one with 8:15 left, the Nets were in a 103-94 hole from which they never recovered.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PHOENIX \u2014 Even the return of James Harden wasn\u2019t enough for the Nets to avoid their longest losing streak in two years. Harden, who had missed the previous two games, finished with 22 points and 10 assists and Kyrie Irving added 26 points, but against the white-hot Suns, it wasn\u2019t enough. The Nets lost 121-111<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[690,203,198],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13756"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13756"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13758,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13756\/revisions\/13758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}