Through 46:50 of their game tonight at home against the Clippers, the Nets were down 98-90 and were seemingly headed for their fifth-straight loss. But, in one of the nuttiest 70-second stretches in the NBA this season and maybe the past few, Brooklyn stormed back on a 12-2 run to a crazy win in Deron Williams’ return from injury after an 11-game absence.
Stuff happened in the first three quarters–such as DeAndre Jordan going 1-for-9 from the free throw line in the first quarter, Jordan dominating the Nets on the glass and above the rim, Jamal Crawford making some ridiculous shots, and Brook Lopez going off yet again–but we’ll focus on the final one.
A D-Will layup to start the fourth tied this game up at 72 apiece. At this point, the Nets had to be ecstatic to be tied since much of the game felt like the Clippers were just a big shot away from making this another blowout win for them (reminder: the Clippers beat the Nets 123-84 less than two weeks ago). However, they didn’t, and were never able to land the proverbial haymaker even in the final frame, as they went up by as much as 11 (90-79 at the 5:16 mark).
Still, as the Clippers continued to crash the boards and ride Jordan, the Nets just wouldn’t go away. Joe Johnson hit a big three–one of four for him–as Brooklyn cut its deficit down to six before it ended up ballooning back to eight on a Jordan putback jam with 1:10 to go. Los Angeles was up 98-90 and the comeback attempt looked to be naught.
Then, the really insane stuff started to happen.
D-Will responded to Jordan’s high-flying antics with a three. Brook “fouled” (didn’t appear to be much contact) Blake Griffin on a fastbreak dunk attempt only for Griffin to miss both freebies. Joe ripped down the rebound and, oddly, right after crossing the halfcourt line was fouled by Matt Barnes. Would Joe knock down the free throws? Nope, he missed both but a Lopez tap-back landed the ball in Joe’s hands behind the arc and, you guessed it, he drilled a very long three.
Now, the Nets were down 98-96 and after a missed Chris Paul jumper, the unthinkable happened. Jack grabbed the rebound–his seventh of the night–and eventually found Alan Anderson in the corner for another Nets three plus a little contact. The contact was deemed to be a foul on Griffin–his sixth–and Anderson would hit the free throw for the rare four-point play to cap the Brooklyn 10-0 run and put the Nets up 100-98.
Of course, it wouldn’t end that easily as Paul, after a timeout, came back down the floor and hit a game-tying layup after completely fooling Deron at the rim. Lionel Hollins called a timeout and with eight seconds left in the game, Jack did this to finally close off the victory. A crossover, stepback jumper to put the Nets up 102-100 for a player who was just 3-11 from the floor tonight. Unreal. What a win for a team that needed it so, so badly.
Assorted thoughts: First off, combined, the Nets and Clippers shot better from three-point range tonight than they did from the free throw line. NBA basketball….Speaking of three-pointers, finally the Nets were able to make some big triples and it paid off. They went 12-27 from deep (that’s 44 percent) and made three in the last 70 seconds to spur their insane comeback effort. Bojan Bogdanovic has been from three lately but hit a few important ones in the second half and ended up with 11 key points off the bench in 18 minutes. Also, Deron (15 points on eight shots in 29 minutes) made three of his five attempts while Joe (22 points, five rebounds, six assists) was 4-6 and Alan (nine points) 2-6. But, it’s not really the numbers that tell the story here as each of those guys made the right shot at the right time which contributed to the win….Brook was also huge in this one. Jordan, obviously, had an enormous day (22 points and 20 boards) and that was partly Lopez’ fault but the Nets’ center poured in an efficient 24 points on 12-20 shooting while also grabbed seven rebounds and making the possible play of the game in fouling Griffin on the dunk. More or less, that play initiated a five-point swing for the Nets that set them up for the victory….Overall, the Nets lost the rebounding battle 52-45 but Mason Plumlee’s (nine boards), Kevin Garnett’s (11 boards, he also passed Nate Thurmond for eighth on the NBA’s all-time rebounding list) and Jack’s (six points, seven boards, seven dimes) contributions on the glass ending up being crucial. Outside of Jordan and Paul, no Clipper was able to get anything going on second-chance points which may have been the difference.
Onto the next one: Wednesday night in Toronto against the Raptors, who the Nets lost to in rough fashion on Friday
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