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| After Marcus Thornton brought Brooklyn back in the third quarter, Joe Johnson took the reins in the fourth and in overtime |
I'm going to keep it short tonight, but by no means should that diminish the huge win your Brooklyn Nets obtained tonight over the Mavericks down in Dallas, Brooklyn's 4th straight win.
Dallas, mainly former Nets Devin Harris and Vince Carter, pounded the Nets with threes early on, which allowed the Mavs–who are having a surprisingly solid season in the tough West–to take a commanding 14-point, 29-15 lead after just 12 minutes of play. Brooklyn's starters looked sluggish to begin the evening, and were missing a lot of makeable shots.
Jason Kidd's team, on his 41st birthday, needed an offensive spark, and it got exactly that–against Kidd's old Mavericks squad–in Marcus Thornton, who scored eight quick points in the second to spur Brooklyn to cut into Dallas' lead, which was only seven points at halftime.
The Mavericks returned the favor early in the second half, as they embarked on a 9-2 run to build a 57-43 lead, putting the Nets back down 14 points again, just like they were in the opening quarter. As the period went on, Brooklyn fought back to be down just seven–like they were at the beginning of the frame–heading into the all-important fourth quarter.
Thornton took over in the fourth, with some help from Mirza Teletovic, who actually played well for the first time in awhile, hitting three 3-pointers (and Mirza one) to bring Brooklyn within four points of Dallas. Then a Paul Pierce lay-in, followed by a Samuel Dalembert pair of free throws and Pierce free throws, made the score just 91-89 Mavericks with 22 seconds left. A Dirk Nowitzki jumper–he only scored 10 points on 2-for-12 shooting–clanged off the rim, allowing Joe Johnson to hit a game-tying layup through the lane to send the game to overtime.
The Nets then anticlimactically dominated the overtime, using threes from Joe and Deron, some points from Pierce, and a steal-leading-to-a-layup by Livingston to blow the stunned Mavericks away en route to a much-needed win that kept Brooklyn just 1.5 games behind Toronto in the Atlantic Division.
Some other observations I had from the game: Marcus Thornton scored 20 points (on 7-for-11 shooting and 4-for-7 from three) and grabbed seven rebounds in his 24 minutes. He may not play amazing every game, but when he does, he gives the Nets an insanely quick and talented reserve wing who can score ridiculously fast and voluminously…..Andrei Kirilenko hurt his ankle in the first half and never returned. He recently missed a few games for a sprained ankle so hopefully he's not hurt that badly…..Joe scored 22 on 8-for-16 shooting, and was huge when the Nets needed him to be. One of his, and the team's, better games of the year.
Looking Ahead
Brooklyn gets no rest after this huge win, as the Nets take on the Pelicans in New Orleans tomorrow night.
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