LOS ANGELES — Twelve minutes of basketball changed the tenor of a long road trip in danger of going off the tracks and sent the Brooklyn Nets back to Southern California on a high heading into Friday night's game against the Los Angeles Lakers.
After three straight losses, the Nets entered the fourth quarter in Sacramento on Tuesday night down 25 points. They walked out with a 123-121 win, scrambling the game with a small lineup and a wide-open alignment to attack the rim. It immediately demanded comparison to the other great improbable win of the season, the double-comeback — fourth quarter and then in overtime — against Houston in January.
"Houston was I don't think as great as this one," said Nets coach Kenny Atkinson. "Houston was a heck of a comeback. I think we were at our wits' end. It was kind of desperation. We turned to that group and it was a little bit like, let's conserve our main guys and play it out. I wasn't expecting an amazing comeback. I just have to be honest. And then slowly but surely we started cutting the lead. I think we got it to 12, wait a second, this is possible. Then I think we cut it 10 and then it's like, OK, it's game on now and ended up closing it out."
It's been wild trip already, with almost another week to go. The Nets opened up by losing to Oklahoma City after leading by 17. In Utah, they were denied by interior defense and punished in transition. The next night they led the Clippers by 19, fell behind by 11, then scored 10 straight points in the final minute to tie the game before losing on Lou Williams' buzzer-beater.
They went into Sacramento in danger of falling below .500 for the first time since Jan. 15.
"We knew going into the game, win by any means," said D'Angelo Russell. "That was the key to the game. Do whatever you got to do to win. Everybody came, stepped up and did their jobs. We were limited at the end with a funky lineup, but it was a hell of a coaching play by coach and it worked."
Russell's 27 fourth-quarter points had more than a little to do with that. It took something extraordinary to make the almost-impossible happen. More than 3,000 times an NBA team has entered the fourth quarter trailing by 25 points or more. On Tuesday night, the Nets became just the fourth team to come out of that scenario with a win.
"I'm surprised we're not the only one," said Atkinson. "I'm surprised it happened before. That's how crazy that game was. Just an incredible, incredible comeback."
D'ANGELO BY THE NUMBERS
Just covering the bases on the stats from D'Angelo Russell's amazing Tuesday night in Orlando. With 44 points and 12 assists, Russell posted the second 30-plus point double-double of his career. The first came one game prior against the Clippers on Sunday. He now has 10 double-doubles this season after compiling eight total through his first three seasons.
It was the first game by a Net with at least 44 points and 12 rebounds since Stephon Marbury in Feb. 2001 and the first back-to-back games of 30 points and 10 rebounds since Devin Harris in 2008-09.
The 44 points were a career high, Russell's third 40-point game of the season, and matched Bojan Bogdanovic for the highest scoring game by a Net in the Brooklyn era.
ABOUT THE LAKERS
While the Nets are more than a week into their road trip, the Lakers are just getting home after a five-game road trip. Like the Nets, they last played on Tuesday, although LeBron James was rested in that game. Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram are both out for the rest of the season. The Lakers have lost four straight and nine of their last 10. They're 4-15 since Feb. 1. James leads Los Angeles across the board with 27.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and 8.0 assists per game.