The Brooklyn Nets overcame an 18-point deficit at halftime, without their normal starters, to defeat the Washington Wizards for the fourth time this season on Saturday at the Barclays Center.
Brooklyn was without Kevin Durant (MCL), Kyrie Irving (right calf soreness) and Ben Simmons (left knee soreness) and needed time to come together. The Nets started to solidify by the third quarter with team effort in speed, defense and scoring led by Cam Thomas that resulted in a 125-123 win.
“As soon as I got in the third quarter, I knew I had to turn it up because we were still down,” Thomas said after the game.
Thomas led the team with a career-high 44 points and contributed five assists and six total rebounds. Edmond Sumner added 29 points and Nic Claxton added 15 points. Claxton led Brooklyn with 13 total rebounds.
“We didn’t get off to the start that we wanted to,” said head coach Jacque Vaughn. “But we responded. We talked about it at halftime that it was more than the physical piece of this game that we were missing, it was the mental piece of this game. Definitely a shift in our mentality. And we got rewarded for it.”
First quarter looked bleak for the Nets. They moved slow, struggled with missed shots and failed to connect passes, while Washington played swiftly and smart, using the height advantage of 7-foot-3 Kristaps Porzingis. The Nets were behind 44-25 by the end of the quarter. Washington had four steals and Brooklyn had one.
The Nets pushed a little harder in the second quarter and outscored the Wizards 30-29. Washington tweeted early in the second quarter that Kyle Kuzma left the game with a left ankle sprain. The Nets trailed 73-55 by half time.
Coach Vaughn said in pregame interviews that offensive rebounding and the ability to keep the ball in front would be important to win this game. Both teams had 19 total rebounds by halftime, but the Nets had 10 total turnovers and the Wizards had six. Thomas said the team talked about rebounding and the turnovers during the break. “We kept fighting, cleaned that up,” he said.
The Nets had 5 five turnovers compared to the Wizards four in the third quarter, but Brooklyn continued to make shots and outscored Washington 37-26 even without Seth Curry, who the Nets tweeted left the game with “left adductor tightness” and Markieff Morris who did not return due to “left knee soreness”. Five blocked shots in the third quarter helped Brooklyn. Washington had none.
Brooklyn continued their pressure in the fourth quarter and forced Washington to make six turnovers. The Nets had none. Both teams had two blocks in the fourth quarter, one from Royce O’Neale, which allowed Yuta Watanabe to grab the rebound and send the ball to Thomas. Thomas ran up the court for a dunk to tie the game at 109 with less than 6:30 minutes remaining in the game. Porzingis made the next point in a free throw, but later fouled out the game. The Nets outscored Washington 33-24 in the fourth quarter.
The Nets might have to keep up this energy if they are without other leading scorers like Irving, who requested a trade the day before the game. They took on the Los Angeles Clippers Monday night losing at home 124-116.
