It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t a good performance. It wasn’t convincing in anyway. But the one thing the Nets’ victory was, though, was a victory and not a loss. Finally, after over a week of bad losses, Brooklyn beat the hamstrung Oklahoma City Thunder tonight to sweep the season series between the two teams.
Even though a loss in this one would be near disaster for Brooklyn, the Nets really didn’t play well until the third quarter, which is usually their undoing. The starters, other than Brook Lopez–who put up his first double-double of the season (16 points, 10 rebounds) tonight–didn’t do much. It was Brooklyn’s bench–namely Mirza Teletovic and Jarrett Jack–that gave the team a spark.
The Nets were down by as much as nine points in the second quarter but were able to fight back to a four-point deficit by halftime. How, you might ask? By attacking the hoop and drawing a lot of fouls and hitting the free throws that resulted. Very simple stuff.
For the first time in what feels like forever, the third quarter was a relatively kind for the Nets, especially the end of it. After a decent start to the second half, the Nets faded back as the young Thunder surged forward. A Sebastian Telfair–Brooklyn native, mind you–three put Oklahoma City up 74-64 at the 2:02 mark of the frame, making another Nets loss seem imminent.
However, Jack answered with a nifty old-fashioned three-point play. Then, following a missed three by Jeremy Lamb, Jerome Jordan put in a layup off a nice Alan Anderson pass. Two missed Thunder shots later and Jack hit another shot right before the quarter ended. All of a sudden, the Nets were down just three after their 7-0 run.
The run wrapped around into the fourth quarter for five more points and gave some momentum back to Brooklyn. Another run, this one of 10 unanswered points, came a few minutes later for the Nets and gave them a seven-point advantage after a small deficit.
Down the stretch, Brooklyn’s old demons of closing out games returned but never allowed the Thunder to regain the lead. When the Nets needed to get stops, they were able to and when they needed a hoop, they got it. Still, though, after Joe Johnson missed the second half of a pair of free throws with four seconds left, the Thunder were a hoop away from overtime and three from a win.
Thankfully, for Brooklyn, after a Scott Brooks timeout, Reggie Jackson’s game-winning attempts just rolled off the rim as the clock expired, preserving the win for the Nets. For some reason, Anderson gave Jackson (led OKC with 21 points) a ton of space to shoot and the Boston College product almost made Brooklyn pay for it. Process disregarded, the Nets got what they went to Oklahoma to get and that was a win.
Some other observations I had from the game: Interestingly, the Nets have won their last three games in Oklahoma City, including tonight’s. Obviously, this one was aided by the Thunder not having Durant, Westbrook or Perry Jones but it’s still notable. Also, Brooklyn was struggling heading into the matchup each of those years and in the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons, the win turned the Nets’ season around. Maybe this one does the same…Kevin Garnett, Joe and Bojan Bogdanovic collectively didn’t do much to speak of tonight. KG grabbed five rebounds but that was basically it. They can’t disappear in future games like they did tonight…To pick up the slack, Jarrett Jack came off the bench and immediately made a difference. He scored 23 on 8-of-15 shooting to go with five assists and was the only Net, for some pockets of time, to show any intensity on the offensive end of the floor. He just made stuff happen, whether it was hitting a three or attacking the hoop for a layup or foul. Instant offense…Brook Lopez also looked like himself for once and even nabbed 10 rebounds (!!!!!). His hook was working early and he was able to make shots when the Nets called his number. The biggest stat was his three blocks as he showed the defensive ability he has always had but rarely demonstrates…Deron Williams, after a rough start, turned it on in the fourth quarter and was vintage D-Will, most notably on a filthy crossover-and-layup at Jeremy Lamb’s expense, who got worked by Deron most of the night. Deron poured in 17 with five boards and four dimes. His, and Brook’s, four turnovers apiece are problematic though…Free throws and rebounds were probably the difference in this game. Brooklyn allowed a ton of second chance points but did win the rebounding battle and dominated the defensive glass late in the game. It seemed as if every missed Thunder shot in the final quarter was collected by Brooklyn, whether it was Brook, Mirza (seven rebounds) or KG (five rebounds). Also, the Nets made 27-of-30 free throw (90 percent), taking advantage of the Thunder’s high foul numbers. On the other hand, OKC went just 12-of-19 from the charity stripe. The Thunder left points on the floor but the Nets didn’t.
Looking Ahead
The Nets are right back at it tomorrow night in San Antonio against the defending champion Spurs. Ugh.
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