Brooklyn fled New Orleans by beating the Pelicans 120-112. With this win, the Nets have won 7 of their last 8 games and improved to 9-4 in their younger season. While it was a record-breaking victory, it wasn't a victory the Nets could really absorb. Brooklyn led by 21 points at one point until the Pelicans fought back and turned the game into a single-handed game in the final minute. "The young team, they're going to play 48 minutes," Joe Harris said after the game. "Nobody's going to disappoint, New Orleans is similar to them, their record is obviously not very good, but they've been working hard. I think we just relaxed a little bit. ”
Blake Griffin scored eight points, five rebounds and three assists in 26 minutes, and one of his layups extended Brooklyn's lead to four points. Then, James Harden — who scored a season-high 39 points, 12 assists and five rebounds in 38 minutes — played his best game of the season — followed by a huge three-pointer to extend the lead to seven. With 29 seconds left in the game, it was enough for us to win a win.
"He was combative all night. I mean he's going downhill, at the free throw line. 11-for-18 (shooting). Very, very efficient," Kevin Durant said of his superstar teammates. "James has done a great job of controlling the game."
"The progress [of the game] has been very steady. Kevin went to work. We got the ball in good position, he played for BG (Griffin) and overall we executed the attack in the last minute. Our defence strengthened in the last minutes," Nash said during the final minutes of the game. "There was a lot of good stuff in every half tonight. We softened our will and allowed them to re-enter. ”
In this game, Durant scored 28 points on 11-of-17 shooting, and 3-of-3 from the backcourt, finishing eight assists and seven rebounds in 38 minutes. Joe Harris helped the Nets win at the start of the game with fiery shots, scoring 24 points on 9-of-12 shooting and 8-of-3 shooting. Both Harden and Harris hit new season highs.
This is clearly the story of the last few minutes. I know James played a few times and Joe and BG went to the basket a couple of times, but Kevin just helped him get the ball in his position; He scored shots, hit a relegation, got a second-base bag, and shot a three-pointer for James. Of course, we played through him and he did it," Nash said of Durant's game. As a team, the Brooklyns ended the win with a 50.6 percent shooting percentage and a 52.9 percent shooting percentage.
Brooklyn sent the same starters in 11 consecutive games — Harden, Harris, Durant, Brown and Griffin. Although Griffin launched the offense in the first round of the game, Brooklyn's defense started slowly, which added to his league lead. New Orleans is clearly not a team that excels at shooting, and they took a 17-13 lead on 7-of-12 shooting at the start of the game. Then, spurred on by Harris's hot shot, the offensive end turned on the switch and the offense began.
The Nets did a good job of pulling the defense inside, giving Harris 5-of-5 three-pointers in the first leg. Durant scored nine points in 12 minutes and Brooklyn ended the game with a 15-4 run, trailing a 63.2 percent shooting percentage (the highest in the first quarter of the season) and a 70.0 three-point shooting percentage to end the first 12 games 33-25.
The Pelicans continued to cause trouble for the Nets' defense in the second quarter. With Durant and Harden both sitting on the bench, New Orleans closed the gap to four points in the first three minutes of the game. It's a shooting training ground for both sides, with both teams struggling to fight for a string of consecutive offenses to get some breathing room.
While Brooklyn's offense did well in the second quarter — 57.1 percent from the field, 66.7 percent from three-point range and 12-point turnovers — the Nets' success was only produced on one side of the court. The Same was true of the Hornets, shooting 53.3 percent from the field and shooting from the backcourt at 50.0 percent. The Nets had three players scored in double figures at halftime — Durant (13 points), Harris (20 points) and Harden (17 points) — to take a narrow lead 66-59.
Under Harden' leadership, the Nets finally pulled away in the third quarter — scoring 12 points in the quarter and defending more tightly. Despite Brooklyn's all-game-high 21-point lead in the middle of the third quarter, the door remained unopened and the New Orleans did not end their 8-game losing streak. That's pretty much it happened.
Durant, Harden and Harris continued to maintain the Nets' offense (for Brooklyn all but 17 points in the third quarter). Still, the Pelicans have beefed up their intensity on the defensive end, and their rotation has created problems for the Nets in terms of offensive access and finding empty space. In the final 12 minutes of the game, New Orleans managed to end the third quarter with a 12-2 climax, narrowing the score to 12 points (95-83).
The 12-point advantage quickly narrowed and the momentum quickly disappeared. The Nets' downsizing allowed the Pelicans to gain an interior spot, control offensive rebounds (6 offensive rebounds in 4 minutes) and take advantage of a second chance.
The Nets were careless on the offensive end, making five turnovers in 6 minutes to help the Pelicans narrow the score to 1 with 6:26 left and take the lead with 5:23 left. In the end, Brooklyn took victory on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends in the final minutes, getting rid of the New Orleans defense.