Christmas came early in Brooklyn as the Nets grinded out a 111-103 victory over a dog tired Phoenix Suns at Barclays Center Sunday night.
Before tip off the feeling for the coaching staff was that the matchup against the Suns had all the makings of a “trap game,” after a second night of a back to back.
The Suns (8-6) who are tied with the Cleveland Cavaliers for the worst record in the league found themselves on the losing side of a grueling 149-146 triple-overtime game against the Washington Wizards––which ended Phoenix’s 4 game winning streak––the night before.
“It’s a big test because I think, you look at the Suns and they played a triple overtime game and then you’ve got Christmas, little break coming up,” Nets coach Kenny Atkinson said about his players potentially letting their matchup against the Suns get the best of them. “We’ve got to handle this professionally and be ready for a team that’s playing really good basketball.”
But it wasn’t the case, and instead the Nets found themselves with their eighth victory in nine games, with very little concern with any noise other than playing their game.
“You know, I keep hearing that. I heard that from the coaches a little bit. I heard that from a reporter yesterday, like I swear we don’t even think about it,” said Jared Dudley after the game. “This is a team we’re supposed to beat. We’re supposed to beat, we gotta come in with that mindset which we did.”
However, the Suns, who arrived at their New York hotel sometime around 1:30 a.m., put up a fight through four quarters despite any fatigue.
“First of all I want to give them a ton of credit. They came off a triple-overtime game and they fought us tooth and nail. That was not an easy victory at all, excellent job by them,” said Atkinson during his post game press conference.
The Nets took a 63-56 lead at halftime after scoring 38 first quarter points, but the Suns continuously found a way to score points efficiently, finishing the first half shooting 52 percent from the field––with 36 of those points coming from the paint.
Entering the third Phoenix cut it to a 66-64 lead before the Nets went on a 13-0 run that started with a Joe Harris three pointer with 8:02 left in the quarter. Brooklyn never looked back taking full control of the game from that point on with a 91-74 lead before entering the fourth quarter.
In the final period of play the Suns turn it up again offensively scoring 29 points on 68 percent shooting from the field, but the Nets managed to maintain their lead for the victory.
While the Nets cleaned up their defense in the second half, they still need to work on defending the paint. For the season they rank in the bottom 10 in the league in points allowed in the paint with teams averaging 51 points per game in the post.
Suns rookie Deandre Jordan scored a game high 26 points on 81 percent shooting, dominating the Nets front court with his post scoring.
“Ayton pounded us in the paint a little bit, I think that was part of the reason I left Ed [Davis] out there. To give us a little more physicality on defense, but it’s It’s been an issue all season. We’re not protecting the rim the way we did earlier this season and we gotta figure that out,” said Atkinson.
Suns young star Devin Booker also scored 12 of his 25 points in the post showing that the Nets don’t only struggle with post scoring bigs.
For Brooklyn it was another well balanced offensive night for the Nets (16-19) who had six players with double-digit scoring nights. Sixth man Spencer Dinwiddie led the team with 24 points and seven assists, while starting point guard D’Angelo Russell added 18 points, eight assists and six rebounds leading the Nets to their eighth victory in nine games.
Ed Davis ended the night with 15 points and nine rebounds, Joe Harris contributed 13 points and second year center Jarrett Allen added 11 points with nine rebounds.
Allen Crabbe’s was out again on sunday making it his sixth straight game on the sidelines, with an apparent knee injury. However, Atkinson doesn’t believe it is a long-term issue and since Brooklyn doesn’t play again until Wednesday against the Charlotte Hornets it’s a possibility that Crabbe will be in the starting lineup again. Until then second-round pick Rodions Kurucs, who scored 16 points and grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds, is expected to be in the starting lineup until Crabbe’s return.
