The Brooklyn Nets hammered the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference First Round series Saturday in a 111-102 victory that wasn’t as close as that score would indicate.
The Nets had a working double-digit lead for almost the entire fourth quarter and that nine-point final margin was as close as the 76ers got in the final 12 minutes while blowing home-court advantage in the series.
But the biggest takeaway nationally wasn’t the Brooklyn bench. It wasn’t D’Angelo Russell shaking off a slow start to score 14 points in the third quarter as the Nets took control of the game.