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Not Kevin Durant? No problem.
After the Nets talked about stealing a game with their star off, it wasn’t stolen: it was won.
The Nets continued to gain momentum with a 147-125 victory Friday at Oklahoma City, tying their highest regulation result in team history.
“They’re very satisfying whenever you can get a win. But every time the whole team has played well we can do great things because one group definitely stands out from the rest, ”said Kyrie Irving. “Really proud of our guys for competing on both ends of the floor and keeping their foot on the accelerator.
Irving had 25 points and seven assists, while James Harden led with 25 points, 11 assists and 10 tables. He has three double trebles and a 6-2 record as a net.
“They were both amazing. James handles the game so well, spreads the ground, scores, assists, bounces, gets his hands on balls defensively, ”said coach Steve Nash. “Kyrie was just an amazing shooter. He is capable of making incredible plays with basketball and it is such a threat that the defenses are struggling to contain.
Clearly. Harden’s game improved everyone around him, with the Nets’ nine players in double numbers tying a team record set on April 8, 1984.
Joe Harris added 20 points on 5 of 9 deep. With Landry Shamet (3 of 7) and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot (4 of 8) finally hitting from the outside, the Nets shot 57% and led by no less than 25 in winning their fourth in a row.
“Very very good. The ball was moving. We were active on both sides of the floor. The coaches came up with a great game plan and we performed on both sides of the ball, ”said Harden. “We like to see the postponement, and these last games that we postponed. We played well – especially on the defense – and it shows. We just have to keep going.
The Nets (13-8) have won eight of their last 10 games to drop Milwaukee to second in the East.
Nash juggled his rotations, giving Harden just his second career forward start and Bruce Brown, a defensive mind, nodded off guard to slow Shaw Gilgeous-Alexander. Everything came from aces.
The Nets arrived after falling five in a row to OKC, but were reimbursed for a Barclays Center loss the previous season on January 10.
“They came to Brooklyn and blew us up, so we had something to prove,” said Brown, who had 19 points on a 9-for-11 shot with five rebounds. “We just communicated on the ground. We were all on a rope. We knew what we wanted to do, try to limit Shai’s contact. We knew the game plan and we stuck to it.
The Nets trailed 19-18 after a 3-point Al Horford with 4:43 left in the first quarter. That’s when they started a long 33-8 run, holding OKC bucketless for 8:08 spanning the first and second quarters.
The Nets forced seven straight misses and four turnovers during that span, taking complete control and never giving it back.
The Nets scored the first 15 unanswered points to open the second quarter. Jeff Green’s strong push on a Harden feed brought the score to 51-27 with 8:53 left in the half.
By the time Luguentz Dort broke the slip, the game was over.
The Nets’ cushion was 76-59 at the break, the second most they’d scored in the first half in their Brooklyn era. And their 115-94 fourth quarter lead was their second of three in team history, behind the 120 they hung in San Antonio on March 6, 2020.
Chris Chiozza’s Brown alley-oop with 1:39 left stuffed the cushion at 145-120.
“We are moving slowly at both ends of the ground,” Nash said. “We had some defensive difficulties at times, but we are getting stronger with our defensive game plan, which is important. Offensively you start to see a little more flow. “
“We’re going to be challenged every night. We’re going to get everyone’s best shot, ”Irving said. “But what we’re doing now is just finding continuity so that we can use the strengths we have.”
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