Add the defending champions to the list.
With their 109-98 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night, the Brooklyn Nets have now won eight of nine games they’ve played against the nine other teams sitting in the top five spots in the standings in each conference. They’ve faced all except Portland, and split with Philadelphia, so they’ve got a win against all eight that they’ve played.
This time, the Nets got themselves a little separation at the end of a tight first quarter, and just steadily stretched their lead from there, eventually leading by as many as 25 points early in the fourth quarter.
“It was fun,” said Kyrie Irving. “Like I said, you don’t really get a chance to do it often in the regular season, playing against the defending champs or playing against teams you’ll see on the West Coast eventually if they make it to the Finals. So we’re on this West Coast trip and we just want to take advantage of seeing where we stand as a team. We’ll talk about it and we’ll move forward, but it’s not anything bigger than that. It’s still the regular season, but it was a fun game.”
The Nets themselves are now in second place in the East with a 19-12 record, having won five straight games, the last four all on the road, bringing them within a game of sweeping their five-game West Coast swing when they play the LA Clippers on Sunday.
The streak started with a 104-94 win at Barclays Center over Indiana, a night after a road loss in Detroit that head coach Steve Nash called “a low for us” that led to some conversations and reflections.
“I think after our game against Detroit obviously it was a game in which we struggled really badly on the defensive end and it was sort of, not a breaking point,” said Joe Harris, “but it just happened pretty repeatedly up to that point and I think after that game just the level of focus, the attention to detail and the intensity on the defensive end has really ramped up and it started with that Indiana game.”
While the Lakers were without Anthony Davis, the Nets were without Kevin Durant for the third straight game and the sixth in the last seven. Flexibility has had to be a key for Brooklyn this season, and they’re increasingly showing a chameleon-like ability to adapt to all circumstances. They’ve used four different starting lineups while winning their last five, with Thursday night’s group the only repeater; they also started Harris, Irving, James Harden, Bruce Brown, and Jeff Green on Monday against Sacramento.
Along the way, they’ve gotten a rotating boost off the bench, this time coming from Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, who made 5-of-8 3-pointers in scoring 15 points.
“It’s a good opportunity for everybody else to come in and fill the void because when we get down the road, you know, we're not going to always have a healthy roster and you never know who you're going to need to step up and play valuable minutes,” said Harris. “So right now, it's a good opportunity for a lot of guys on the bench just to have an opportunity to play more meaningful minutes. I mean, even the other night against Phoenix I thought it was great just overall, it was a collective effort from everybody. And you know, we know that we can rely on guys one through 15 which is what you need when you're building a championship roster and championship mentality.”
Harris hit for 6-of-7 3-pointers himself while scoring 21 points, and Harden posted his 11th straight double-double — a franchise record — with 23 points and 11 assists, plus six rebounds. Irving had 16 points and seven rebounds, and Landry Shamet had 10 points off the bench.
While the Lakers have the highest rated defense in the NBA, Brooklyn’s offensive juggernaut just kept rolling. The Nets shot 49.4 percent overall and 46.2 percent from 3-point range, making 18-of-39. Over the last five games, the Nets have an offensive rating of 124.4, well above their mark of 117.9 points per 100 possessions that already leads the league to begin with. They're also shooting 52.3 percent overall and 45.9 percent from 3-point range during that stretch.
They closed the first quarter with a 13-4 run to take a 31-24 lead, and never trailed again. Harris hit three 3-pointers in a span of 1:12 in the second quarter, part of a 14-4 run that had Brooklyn up by 19 points on the way to a 64-53 halftime lead as the Nets made 11-of-21 3-pointers in the first half.
That long-range barrage continued after halftime as Harris and Luwawu-Cabarrot quickly connected from deep to push the Brooklyn lead to 70-53. With the Lakers back within 75-65, the Nets ran off a 12-2 burst to stretch their lead to 20. The Nets took a 90-74 lead into the fourth quarter, then opened up with a 9-0 run to push their lead to 25 points, with Harris’ 3-pointer putting Brooklyn up 99-74 with 9:20 remaining in the game.
“I think we definitely did a great job tonight of establishing the pace,” said Irving. “You know, we knew that (LeBron James) was going to go out and try to score a lot of points. So we were relying on those other guys to make shots around him. So we just wanted to come out and show why we've been able to go on this little streak of ours, and that's just committing to the other end of the floor — defensive end — and staying principally connected. Just being there for each other. That's it. Rebounding, boxing out, doing the little details that create separation. So we'll see them down the line again, and we look forward to it, with a whole entire healthy Lakers team. That's what we really wanted. I know everybody wants that. So I'm looking forward to the challenge and seeing them down the line.”