5. Jarrett Jack, “The What-If” Game, 2015 First Round Game 5
Context is key here! The 38 win Nets were not only hanging with the 60 win Atlanta Hawks, but threatened to take a 3-2 week back to Brooklyn.
Yes, Jarrett Jack’s 18 point, six assist game was not objectively better than some of the other games on this list, but Jack did helped orchestrate a 17-8 run to kick off the fourth quarter and bring the Nets to within one point, including scoring 12 in a row at one point.
This Nets team was the quintessential eight-seed. They were stuck between periods of success and decline but still made trades at the deadline with the intention of sneaking in the back door of the playoffs. Brook Lopez and Thaddeus Young were the only two players in their prime. Thus, young pieces (Mason Plumlee, Bojan Bogdanovic) complemented aging vets (Deron Williams, Joe Johnson) to form a classic stuck-in-the-middle eight seed.
If the Nets pulled off a win in Game 5 and used the momentum to close out the series in Brooklyn, the Billy King era might be remembered a little differently. The Hawks closed the game out on a 10-2 run and ran away in Game 6 to end the “what-if” scenario.
Consider this inclusion as a personal favorite.