The Brooklyn Nets have the NBA’s leading offense, and it was on display for most of Monday night’s matchup against the New York Knicks. Kyrie Irving put up 34 points on another wildly efficient shooting night. James Harden? Check off another triple-double.
But they still ended up going down to the wire while winning their 13th game in their last 14 outings, ultimately holding off the Knicks for a 117-112 win at Barclays Center that improved their record to 27-13.
It was the second straight game the Nets entered the fourth quarter with a double-digit lead and were pressed to the buzzer. This time they were up by 18 points in the third quarter, only to see the Knicks make it a single possession game with the ball in the final 10 seconds.
“We have to have that,” said James Harden. “We can’t be the pretty shot-making and easygoing team that we’ve been. We’ve got to get dirty a little bit. We’ve got to do the small things, dive on the floor, taking charges, being physical, boxing out, the small things. Ultimately, our skills and our talents are pretty high. If we do the small things, which we’ve been doing, we can’t lose sight of that and we’ve got to continue that. Like I said, it’s going to be pretty tough to beat us because we’re showing how physical we are and we’re making shots. It’s like, what can you do?”
Up 12 at the start of the fourth quarter, the Nets saw that lead trimmed to 107-103 with 4:30 to go. But with Harden and Irving combining for the next eight points, they were back up 115-108 with 28.6 seconds left. It still came down to a final possession, with Irving forcing a travel on Julius Randle, getting a hand on the basketball to disrupt Randle as he rose for a potential tying 3-pointer in the final seconds. Harden’s free throws with 0.6 seconds left sealed the game.
“I was either gonna foul early, but I saw him lining up for a jump shot,” said Irving. “I felt I could get a good hand on it. (Referee) Scott (Foster) called travel. I thought Julius made a good play afterwards putting it down. I was gonna foul him after that just to get him to the free throw line. That’s how it looked. That’s how it went.”
It was the 10th triple-double in 26 games as a Net for Harden, who finished with 21 points, 15 assists, and 15 rebounds. Irving had another high-percentage scoring night, making 13-of-18 shots, including 4-of-6 3-pointers.
Jeff Green had 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting, making both of his 3-point attempts, and Joe Harris added 13 points. DeAndre Jordan had eight points and nine rebounds.
The Nets shot 57.9 percent (44-of-76) against a team that came in leading the league in opponent field goal percentage allowed and ranked fourth in defensive efficiency.
Trailing 18-11 early on, Brooklyn ran off eight straight points to move into the lead, and an 11-2 run at the end of the quarter — seven points from Green, who had 14 in the quarter — put them up 35-30 going into the second quarter.
“Just simple pick and roll,” said Green. “How they was playing it, we just tried to abuse it the best way we can and James being the good passer that he is was finding me on all the rolls and I just tried to make a play at the end of it. Credit James for being the lethal scorer that he is. We just tried to get back in the game that way. We did get a good rhythm that way and it allowed us to take the lead.”
Harden then authored a 10-0 run to start the second quarter — assists to Nic Claxton and Bruce Brown, plus three free throws — as the Nets went up 45-30. The Nets ended up outscoring the Knicks 25-6 over an extended stretch going back to the first quarter on the way to going up 49-32. When Harden’s transition layup put the Nets up 49-32, the Nets were shooting 73.0 percent for the game at that point. They led by as many as 18 in the second quarter before going into halftime up 67-55.
“My only gripe was we had a chance to be up 20-25 in the first half, and we let them get back to I think ... I can't remember but they cut the deficit at halftime,” said Nets head coach Steve Nash. “That can come back to bite you, but it didn't. We got it done in the end, and we'll just have to learn from it, take a look at a few of the scenarios and get better.”
A quick 7-3 burst to open the third quarter — Irving’s finish, Green’s 3-pointer, a Harris cut and finish — pushed the Brooklyn lead back up to 74-58. The Nets made 12-of-21 shots in the third quarter — including 5-of-8 3-pointers — and matched their largest lead of the game to that point when a Landry Shamet 3-pointer put them up 94-76 before they took a 96-84 lead into the fourth quarter.
The Knicks turned their third-quarter finish into an 11-2 run after scoring seven of the first nine points in the fourth quarter. Then, with the Nets up 104-94, a 9-2 New York run made it a 107-103 game with 4:30 to go.
“We just got relaxed,” said Harden. “We had a number of times where we can put them away. We just didn't make the right plays, or they made shots. They're a feisty team. They've got some shot-makers. Obviously we know how well Julius Randle's been playing. But we had a lot of opportunities to make shots and go up 20 and we didn't do it, and they came and knocked down a couple 3s, and then (Immanuel) Quickley got it going. So give them credit. They made shots, they played well, but when it was time to close out the game, we did what was necessary to win.”