LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Clippers denied the Brooklyn Nets and their late comeback as Lou Williams drained a top-of-the-key 3-pointer at the buzzer for a 119-116 win over Brooklyn.
With the game tied going into the fourth quarter, the Clippers ran to a 14-point lead five minutes in before the Nets came back with 10 straight points to get within four with just over five minutes remaining.
The Clippers pushed the lead back to 10 before the Nets scored the next eight to cut the lead to two. D'Angelo Russell made a 3-pointer with 44.1 seconds to go, the Nets forced a five-second violation on the inbounds, and DeMarre Carroll converted a three-point play to make it a 116-114 game.
Brooklyn forced a miss at the other end with 11 seconds to go, and then Russell lobbed to an open Jarrett Allen cutting down the lane for a dunk that tied the game with 5.3 seconds remaining.
Russell led the Nets with 32 points and 10 assists and DeMarre Carroll had 22 points and seven rebounds. Spencer Dinwiddie had 13 points.
Jarrett Allen posted a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds, while Joe Harris and Caris LeVert had 12 points each. LeVert added seven assists and four rebounds.
The Nets led by as many as 19 points in the first half, but went into halftime trailing by five as the Clippers' comeback was fueled by a 25-4 run in the second quarter.
Russell powered the Nets to their early lead, scoring 16 points in the game's first 17 minutes. Brooklyn went up 30-23 at the end of the first quarter behind the beginnings of a 13-3 run that carried into the second quarter.
LeVert opened up the second quarter with two scores and Davis put Brooklyn up 36-23. With the Nets up 36-25, Russell and Carroll knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers. Williams dropped in a runner for the Clippers before David put back a rebound and Carroll finished a drive for a 46-27 Nets lead four minutes into the quarter.
Danilo Gallinari and Montrezl Harrell led the big Clippers run that followed, with a Gallinari jumper tying the game at 52. Carroll scored in the lane for the Nets. but Landry Shamet connected on a 3-pointer to give Los Angeles its first lead of the game.
After a Dinwiddie free throw tied the game at 55, the Clippers went up 60-55 at the break after another Shamet 3-pointer and tow Gallinari free throws.
The Clippers pushed that lead to 11 points four minutes into the quarter before the Nets surged back into the game on a 19-3 run. Russell scored six of Brooklyn's final seven points in the run, with a crossover and ball fake setting up a floater for an 82-77 lead. They went into the fourth tied at 87.
The Clippers jumped out with a 18-4 to open the fourth and go up 105-91 with seven minutes to go. The Nets came back with a quick 8-0 burst as back-to-back threes from Russell and Dinwiddie cut the Los Angeles lead to 105-99 with 5:40 remaining. After a Los Angeles timeout, Allen soared to dunk an alley-oop from Russell and make it a four-point game.
UP NEXT
The Nets are in Sacramento on Tuesday, then return to Los Angeles to play the Lakers on Friday.