GOT YOUR BACK: DEVILS BEAT ACES 75-65, TAKE 2-0 LEAD

Game 1 belonged to Jalen Brunson’s flamethrower. Game 2 belonged to the structure around him.

The Devils beat Atlantic City 75-65 to take a 2-0 series lead, winning every quarter after a 15-15 opening period and leaning on a full rotation rather than another one-man explosion.

Brunson still led New Jersey with 18 points, but the possession that defined the night started with a Cooper Flagg miss. Brunson fought through traffic to keep the possession alive, recovered the offensive rebound and helped return the ball to the rookie for another look. Flagg converted the second chance. The next sequence flipped the roles, with Flagg cleaning up a Brunson miss.

That exchange became the Devils’ ‘got your back’ moment: veteran captain and rookie forward solving the possession together instead of treating a miss as the end of it.

Scottie Pippen scored 12 on 5-for-6 shooting. Flagg finished with 11 and made three of four from deep. Ball and Pippen helped choke off Atlantic City’s perimeter game while New Jersey shot 53 percent from both the field and from three.

The Devils also won the extra-possession work: 10 offensive rebounds, 11 second-chance points and 43 bench points.

Atlantic City was still in the series. It just had not yet found a version of the game New Jersey could not answer.