Mikal Bridges scores 30, but 76ers pull away from Nets to take Game 1

PHILADELPHIA — The rafters at Wells Fargo Center have three Villanova championship banners, two won when Mikal Bridges played there. So it wasn’t a surprise that the Philadelphia native looked comfortable Saturday.
 Bridges scored 30 points in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference first-round playoff series, but the Nets didn’t have the firepower to match the 76ers’ three-point shooting in their wire-to-wire 121-101 victory.
 The 76ers made 21 three-pointers — setting a franchise single-game playoff record — in 43 attempts and the Nets shot 13-for-29 from outside the arc. They also turned 14 offensive rebounds into 21 second-chance points and forced 19 Nets turnovers.
 “We have to be disciplined enough that the shots that we want to give up because of game-plan-wise, those are OK,” Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said.

“But the extra effort that you got to make this play, somehow you have to come up with the basketball . . . those are the ones that hurt and have momentum.”
 The game plan was to double-team 76ers All-Star center Joel Embiid. From the opening tip, the Nets sent an extra defender to keep Embiid company whenever he touched the ball.
 It worked for a half, sort of. Embiid had just 10 points and took only seven shots, but thanks to his passing and the 76ers finding open shooters, they made 13 three-pointers by halftime to lead 67-58. Five came from James Harden, who made three in the final 2:20 of the second quarter.
 “You got to understand personnel and where guys like to shoot from and where they don’t,” Cam Johnson said. “I think we can just do a better job of . . . knowing where guys want to shoot and don’t want to shoot from instead of giving them the ones that they feel comfortable with.”

Embiid broke free in the third quarter with 10 points and finished with 26 points and 7-for-15 shooting. Harden made seven three-pointers and had 23 points and 13 assists. Long Island’s Tobias Harris added 21 points, going 3-for-3 on three-pointers.
 Bridges almost single-handedly kept the Nets’ offense humming. He scored 11 points in the first quarter and finished with 23 in the first half, thanks to a steady diet of layups and mid-range shots.
 “Just trying to be aggressive, you know, try to do whatever it takes to win,” he said of his first half. “Coaches, players just finding me and just try and be aggressive. Trying to win the game.”
 He shot 12-for-18 from the field but took only two shots in the second half. The 76ers adjusted to blitz him on screens and forced him to be a playmaker instead of a scorer.
 With Bridges contained, the Nets couldn’t pick up the scoring load. Johnson finished with 18 points and Spencer Dinwiddie added 14. Seth Curry had 10 points off the bench.
 “The first half for us was like being on the beach,” 76ers coach Doc Rivers said of Bridges. “He just kept curling in the paint, wide-open shots. Second half, we double-teamed him a lot more. We got the ball out of his hands and I thought that was effective.”
 The Nets stayed close in the third quarter as Johnson’s three-pointer cut the 76ers’ lead to 88-81 with 2:14 left in the period. But a dunk by Jalen McDaniels and a three-pointer by Tyrese Maxey pushed the lead to 12 by quarter’s end, and the Nets never threatened again.
 The fourth quarter opened with the 76ers getting an offensive rebound that led to a three-pointer by Georges Niang. It was a theme of the game. The Nets couldn’t keep the 76ers off the glass or get enough stops, and the 76ers had just nine turnovers.
 Even though the Nets held Embiid to an average shooting day, it’s the 76ers leading the series heading into Game 2 on Monday. It’s also why Bridges left Wells Fargo Center without enjoying his second career playoff game with at least 30 points.

“None of that [stuff] matters when you lose,” he said. “It feels good to make some shots, but I’d rather miss shots and win.”

By Evan Barnes

evan.barnes@newsday.comevan_b

Evan Barnes covers the Nets for Newsday. He previously covered Memphis football and the Memphis Grizzlies and also covered prep sports in Los Angeles.