The Nets aren’t burying teams from beyond the 3-point arc. They are doing more than simply outscoring the opposition. And they are winning — more than they were at this point last year.
Defense and toughness can go a long way.
That trend continued Friday night in a drama-filled 113-105 victory over the Hawks that included a brief confrontation between Kevin Durant and Trae Young.
Defense, a surprising Nets strength, ignited this quality road win in which they rallied from an 11-point, second-half deficit and held the explosive Hawks to just 14 points in the final quarter.
On another night when the Nets were outshot from 3-point range and fell behind early, they scrapped in key moments, and received production from a few surprising sources.
Bruce Brown scored 15 points off the bench in his best game in weeks, rookie Cam Thomas continued to produce, scoring 11 key points, and Nic Claxton’s defense was essential down the stretch as the Nets began switching everything to prevent Young’s patented drive-and-kickouts.
The contributions came in support of another brilliant night from Durant, who had 31 points, six assists and three blocks, and James Harden’s 20-point, 11-assist double-double.
“We had some lapses here and there throughout the game,” coach Steve Nash said, “but the effort and just the kind of desperation we played with in the fourth quarter was unbelievable.”
With the win, the Nets improved to an Eastern Conference-best 18-8. They were just 14-12 through 26 games a year ago. Their defensive rating, which is seventh this year and 22nd last season, has figured prominently, making up for the absences of Kyrie Irving and Joe Harris, which has weakened the offense’s potency.
Young led the Hawks with 31 points, but shot just 10-for-27 from the field and went 2-for-6 in that fateful fourth quarter. At one point in the fourth, he came face to face with Durant, unhappy with a hard foul from the Nets’ forward. Afterwards, they shared a hug.
“I was a little too physical there on that action and I kind of pushed him a bit,” Durant said. “He wanted me to get up out of his space and I respect that. We move on from that. It’s all a part of the game, it’s nothing personal. It’s just all competition.”
The game was almost a carbon copy of Tuesday’s come-from-behind win over the Mavericks, in which the Nets trailed 12 at halftime. Defense was essential late in that win as well as the Nets held Dallas to 13 points in the fourth quarter and bottled up Luka Doncic with the game in the balance, just as they did to Young on Friday.
“Defensively tonight and [against Dallas] it felt really good to guard,” Harden said.
The Hawks led by as many as 11 early in the third quarter, but the Nets went ahead at one point late in the stanza after a pair of Thomas 3-pointers. The teams traded haymakers like that the entire evening, going punch for punch. The Nets delivered the final salvo, a 12-2 run that was fueled by defense and two monster dunks by Claxton. It gave them a 103-95 lead with 5:24 left, an advantage they didn’t relinquish.
“We don’t give up, man,” Harden said. “We’re just a resilient team. We go through times throughout the course of a game where things don’t go our way, we miss shots or whatever the case may be. This is the NBA, so teams go on runs. But we find ways to come back and give ourselves a chance. That’s all you can ask for, especially when you’re down.”
