The winning continued for the Brooklyn Nets after wild 134-132 double-overtime win over the Charlotte Hornets at Barclays Center, putting them one step closer to the postseason.
With 6.7 seconds left and the game tied in the second OT, Hornets guard Malik Monk turned the ball over off a dribble leading to a one man fastbreak by Joe Harris who finishes with a layup with 3.4 seconds left on the clock.
Victory did not come easy for the Nets (17-19) as they continued finding themselves in a losing situation against Kemba Walker and the visiting Hornets. The back-and-forth matchup had 18 lead changes and 22 ties through regulation and the two overtime’s as the Nets consistently make smart basketball plays to stay in the game.
“Great fight. We lost the game three or four times and we just kept coming back. They hit tough shots, we came back and hit tough shots. Just a great basketball game,” said Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson after the game. “Give a lot of credit to them, same thing they didn’t give up, that’s why they’re a good team. That’s why they’re a playoff team and it was a good test for us tonight and we made some big plays to pull it through.”
It’s a testament to how far the Nets—who are 9-1 in their last 10 games—have come since their eight game losing streak the ended just ten games ago.
Against the Hornets (16-17) it was just another showing of how ready this team is to battle through tough games, and what’s maybe the most impressive is how the Nets are able to find a hot hand from multiple players on any given night.
Last night sixth man of the year candidate Spencer Dinwiddie led the way with 37 points and 11 assists during the back-and-forth matchup against the seventh seed Hornets. Harris also has a big game scoring 27 points on 11-14 shooting finishing the game with a 78 shooting percentage from the field. Rookie Rodions Kurucs continued to shine finishing with 13 points, 13 rebounds, 3 steals and 1 block.
Even with Dinwiddie and Harris leading the way on Wednesday night, everyone seems ready to make big plays throughout the game, but more importantly down the stretch.
“Spencer (Dinwiddie) hit some amazing shots, but there were a lot of big plays from the whole group and that’s kind of how we’re built, that’s how we’re going to keep going forward,” said Atkinson.
The biggest effort that came from this resurged Nets team was their defense on Kemba Walker, who was held to just three points in both OT’s. The Nets did a superb job at neutralizing Walker who finished with a total of 35 points—even when the All Star guard found what he thought was a mismatch in Kurucs.
“It was crazy. The way they guarded me, I don’t know if anyone else in this league is getting guarded like they guarded me. It was like a box-and-one. I haven’t seen that since I was in college. It was crazy,” Walker said after the game.
Walker hasn’t seen defense like that all season, and nothing was more telling than the last possession when the Nets forced the ball completely out of his hands making Monk set the offense for what should have been their game winning drive.
“They have a phenomenal player who is probably going to be an All Star in Kemba (Walker) and we made just enough plays, just enough shots, just enough stops. So, it’s a credit to our group in terms of maturing,” said Dinwiddie, who finished the game with just one turnover in 41 minutes.
The Nets now find themselves half a game away from a playoff seed behind the Hornets and Miami who sit in the seventh and eighth seed in the Eastern Conference.
They will travel to Charlotte to face the Hornets on Friday to complete the back-to-back matchup.
