Bridges Clutch In Win Over Wizards
Photo: Special to the NY Beacon
By Shara Talia Taylor
It wasn’t a perfect win, but the Brooklyn Nets outlasted the Washington Wizards 102-94 at Barclays Center last Sunday afternoon.
The Nets rebounded from a loss last Friday night against the Boston Celtics and started the game strong. Brooklyn fell behind in the fourth quarter, but as Mikal Bridges landed shots and the Nets gave an extra defensive push the team secured their comeback victory.
“It’s the perfect example where we could definitely have split apart, not win this basketball game,” said Nets coach Jacque Vaughn. “Somehow we figured out how to stay together, make plays at the end of the game, trust that we’re a good enough team to get it done.”
Vaughn anticipated the Nets would have to play up-tempo to keep up with Wizards’ Kyle Kuzma and Jordan Poole.
“Play extremely fast,” Coach Vaughn said during pregame about what it would take to win. “The transition piece is going to be huge for us tonight.”
Brooklyn’s early efforts made a big impact. The Nets were ahead 30-15 at the end of the first quarter. Brooklyn had 23 rebounds and Washington had nine in the quarter.
The Nets were outscored 26-19 in the second quarter, but were ahead 49-41 at halftime. Bridges led Brooklyn with 15 points and Deni Avdija led Washington with 10 points.
The Nets were outscored again 31-29 in the third quarter. Washington tied the score at 80 in the fourth quarter and then pushed ahead 82-81.
Brooklyn trailed behind until 2:26 minutes remained in the game, when Bridges made a steal and tied the game at 92 after a pass from Nic Claxton.
Then Brooklyn increased their defense with steals and blocks to win. The team had five steals and four blocks in the fourth quarter alone, but only had one steal and two block shots in the first three quarters combined. Claxton had three of the block shots in the fourth quarter. “We just were a little lackadaisical,” Claxton said about why the Nets fell behind. “We turned the ball over. It was definitely an ugly win, but we would rather have an ugly win than an ugly loss any day,” Claxton said.
Bridges made an impact with more successful shots in the fourth quarter. He had three points in the second quarter, two points in the third quarter and had 10 points in the fourth quarter alone. “Just kept shooting them,” Bridges said about why his shots were successful later in the game. “I missed a lot of 3s (3-pointers) and 3s just hurt when you just keep missing them.” He said he was just “trying to win the game”. Bridges led the Nets with 27 points.
“The will to win at the end of a game, to make a play, whether it’s the free throws, whether its’s the layup, whether it’s the pull-up midi, all of those things we need at the end of a game and his will to win is really high level,” Vaughn said about Bridges’.
The Nets next face the Orlando Magic Tuesday and The Miami Heat Thursday.
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