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For the first time all season, the Nets didn’t have James Harden.
But they had Kevin Durant. And fourth-quarter defense.
Against woebegone Detroit, that was more than enough.
The Nets turned up the defensive screws and squeezed the life out of the Pistons in a 116-104 come-from-behind victory at Little Caesars Arena on Sunday.
Durant poured in 51 points, the eighth 50-point game of his career and his first in a Brooklyn uniform. And after trailing by five after three quarters, the Nets opened the fourth with a 19-1 run that won the game.
Patty Mills (18 points, five assists) started again and ran the offense with Harden resting, and the Nets ran Detroit’s losing skid to 12 games.
No. 1-overall draft pick Cade Cunningham had 26 points, but the Nets’ endgame defense was stellar. They outscored the Pistons 30-13 in the fourth.
“Overall we’ve defended pretty well,” coach Steve Nash said. “We’re not perfect every night, but in stretches we’ve been outstanding and solid for the most part. That’s something that I think has been our foundation to our wins this season and it’s got to continue. We keep talking about it, but as we find growth offensively we’ve got to be able to win games defensively.”
After holding the Mavericks to 13 fourth-quarter points and the Hawks to 14, they smothered Detroit in the final period.
“It’s incredible,” Nash said. “To play good teams on the road and be able to shut them down in the fourth quarter, down the stretch, is a coach’s dream.
“So it’s something for us to build on. It’s something for us to gain confidence with and hopefully if we can put together longer stretches every night defensively, it gives our odds a boost. So proud of the guys and think we showed a glimpse of the higher levels of our defense.”
OK, clearly Detroit is not a good team. As a matter of fact, they’re just the opposite.
But the Nets were playing without not just Kyrie Irving and Joe Harris, but also Harden and Paul Millsap. Harden was being rested after having averaged 36.2 minutes this season, and over 40 in the first three games of this road trip to Dallas, Houston and Atlanta.
Sunday was the first contest he missed this season.
“He was open to it. Yeah, he had a heavy stretch of games, and we’re going to try to steal some games for these guys here and there. And fortunately, he was open enough for [this] to be the night,” Nash saidbefore the game. “So we’ll miss him [against Detroit], but it’s important and it pays this forward hopefully to the end of the season.”
Even after allowing six unanswered points on back-to-back 3s by Saben Lee and Cunningham, the Nets still had a 31-24 edge to end the first quarter.
But when Durant took a rest at the start of the second quarter, what had been a cohesive Brooklyn offense fell apart. After the Nets had taken advantage of Detroit’s constant double-teams on Durant, they struggled without that edge.
The Nets could only watch as the Pistons reeled off an 18-8 run in Durant’s absence. By the time he checked back in with 6:33 left in the second quarter, the Nets trailed 42-39 and had lost all momentum.
They trailed 91-86 after a Frank Jackson 3-pointer to end the third quarter. But the Nets had that 11-0 run to open the fourth, with Cam Thomas following Durant’s free throws and game-tying 3-pointer with a midrange pull-up of his own. The rookie’s 16-footer gave the Nets a 93-91 edge. And after Durant drew a foul on Josh Jackson, he sank both free throws for a four-point edge.
After a Mills steal, Durant threaded the needle for Thomas on the fast break. And the rookie’s reverse put the Nets up 97-91 with 9:27 left.
The Pistons didn’t break the drought until 8:46 remaining, when Durant picked up a fifth foul to send Isaiah Stewart to the line. But Nash left Durant in the game, trusting the star to play smart. It worked, with the Nets having a 19-1 run, when Nic Claxton’s defense led to a Thomas steal and ended with a Bruce Brown fast-break flush.
The Nets led 105-92 with 6:27 to play, and cruised from there.
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