NEW YORK _ The Nets' blazing hot shooting touch in the first half had cooled, point guard Jeremy Lin was on the bench with a strained left hamstring injury and a 21-point lead was down to four when Pistons star Tobias Harris buried a left-wing 3 with 38.9 seconds left Wednesday night at Barclays Center. The Nets' "Brooklyn grit" motto was about to get a severe test.
That's where power forward Trevor Booker, who earlier asserted himself as the Nets' enforcer, came up with a series of hard-nosed plays _ he forced a Detroit turnover, blocked a layup and finally grabbed an offensive rebound before Brook Lopez hit a pair of foul shots for some breathing room in what became a 109-101 Nets victory.
Lopez, who totaled a season-high 34 points and 11 rebounds, converted the free throws for a 107-101 lead with 14.9 seconds to play, and the Nets improved to 2-3 with a hard-fought win over a playoff team. Sean Kilpatrick added 24 points and 10 rebounds for the Nets. Harris and Marcus Morris led the Pistons (3-2) with 23 points apiece.
The Nets were coming off what they described as a "low-energy" 30-point blowout by the Bulls on Monday night, but coach Kenny Atkinson said they had "flushed it." The Pistons were playing the second of a back-to-back set after beating the Knicks, and coach Stan Van Gundy worried ahead of time about the Nets' "unique" attack.
"They're really hard to play against," Van Gundy said. "They play at a high energy level and they really run the ball. They've got some guys who attack the basket, particularly Jeremy Lin and Sean Kilpatrick. And then, everybody on their team shoots threes. Forty percent of their shots are from three. So, it's a really different game, and we're going to have to get our energy up."
The key, Van Gundy said, was to limit the Nets' penetration, then closeout the perimeter shooters, "and hopefully they miss. Hopefully."
As it turned out in the first half, that was nothing more than wishful thinking by Van Gundy. The Nets made their first nine field-goal attempts before Rondae Hollis-Jefferson finally missed with 6:03 left in the first quarter. The Pistons kept pace until the Nets put together a 9-2 burst to reach the end of the period with a 38-30 lead on 16-of-20 shooting from the field.
There was barely any let-up in the second quarter as the Nets pushed their halftime lead to 71-55. By that time, their shooting percentage had dropped all the way down to 70.7 (29 of 41). They got great games off the bench from Kilpatrick with 15 first-half points on 6-of-7 shooting and Joe Harris with nine points on 4-of-4 shooting.
But there was no greater revelation than Lopez, who had 24 first-half points on 9-of-12 shooting, including 4-of-5 marksmanship from 3-point range. The 7-foot center came into the game 4-of-38 for his career from 3-point range, but he has been working relentlessly on it at the behest of Atkinson, who previously helped transform former Atlanta big man Al Horford into a 3-point threat. For one night, at least, Lopez was drinking the same elixir.
Nothing great lasts forever, though, and Lin was not on the floor for the second half, leaving point guard duties in the hands of rookie Isaiah Whitehead because vets Greivis Vasquez (ankle) and Randy Foye (strained right hamstring) also were out with injuries. But two guards Kilpatrick and Harris showed they were up to ballhandling duties in the clutch.
The Nets extended their lead to a high of 21 points early in the third period, but a 15-2 Pistons run brought them back to earth. The Nets went to the fourth period trying to protect a 92-81 advantage.
