It came down to the wire, but the Brooklyn Nets picked up their second win of the season Tuesday, beating the Atlanta Hawks 90-88.
Tied 88-88, Thaddeus Young had the game-winning layup in his hands with seconds to play. He drove to the hoop, but Kyle Korver knocked him out of the air causing Young to land hard on the floor. Young composed himself before hitting both free throws, putting the Nets ahead 90-88 with 1.4 seconds to play.
“This was a big win,” head coach Lionel Hollins said. “The big difference between two games. One game we have three opportunities to execute and we don’t. Tonight we have three opportunities to execute and we do and we come out a winner.”
Young’s free throws simply capped off a thrilling finish to Tuesday’s game, as the lead changed four times in the final 1:14. With 33.3 seconds left, Jarrett Jack hit a game-tying field goal. With 7.9 to play, Brook Lopez came up with a key block and in the dying seconds, Joe Johnson forced a turnover and set Young out on a fast break, setting up the eventual winning free throws.
“The game wasn’t the prettiest,” Jack said. “We just kept fighting. We are going to have some grind-out type games.”
It took both teams a quarter to settle in, as the Hawks led 19-17 after 12 minutes. The Nets fell behind as many as 10 points in the second quarter, but strong three-point shooting (6-for-10 in the first half) had the Nets within one, down 46-45, at the half.
The Nets hit 3-of-7 threes in the third quarter (giving them a season-high nine on the night) but, Brooklyn got the big baskets when they needed them. Shane Larkin hit back-to-back threes giving the Nets a 68-64 lead with 1:56 to play in the third quarter, their first lead in nearly a full half. The Nets protected that lead, taking a 72-68 advantage into the fourth quarter, though a 10-4 Atlanta run tied the score 76-76 setting the stage for the gripping finish.
“We made mistakes tonight, but the most important thing was that we continued to play,” Lopez said. “We had our lulls, we were down, but we didn’t give up. You could see that on the road the past few games and we broke through tonight.”
Lopez finished with a game-high 24 points, shooting 11-of-21, with 10 rebounds and three blocks. Young scored 16 points (7-of-13) with a game-high 11 rebounds. Jack and Larkin combined for seven three-pointers and each finished the game with 14 points. Jack finished with eight assists, while Johnson had a team-high nine.
With the win, the Nets snapped a six-game regular-season losing streak to the Hawks, but more importantly, snapped a two-game streak of strong efforts without the results to show for it.
“We’re showing growth,” Jack said. “We showed flashes of what’s necessary for us to be a good team. Tonight was another example.”
“[The win] gives us a great deal of confidence going into the next game,” Young said. “Hopefully we can get that win and keep building on what we are trying to do here.”
Tipoff in Charlotte goes Wednesday at 7 p.m.