NEW YORK _ It took some doing, but the Nets continued to erase the ghosts of past collapses as they allowed a 21-point fourth-quarter lead to shrink to five points inside the final minute before holding on for a 126-121 victory Wednesday night at Barclays Center. The victory snapped a two-game losing streak to give them 10 wins in their past 13 games.
Midway through the fourth quarter, the Pelicans put together a 15-1 surge to cut the Nets' lead to 113-106 with 5:04 left to play. That was as close as they had been to that point in the second half, but no one could blame the Nets if they couldn't help but flash back to Oct. 26 when they blew a 13-point lead in a loss in New Orleans, including a seven-point advantage in the final two minutes.
But this time, the Nets got the stops they needed on defense and Joe Harris drove for a layup and then scored on a putback to restore a 117-106 lead with 3:31 left. But when the Nets entered the final two minutes, their lead once again was down to nine, and it shrank to five on a Julius Randle layup with less than a minute to go.
Spencer Dinwiddie made a pair of foul shots, but Randle scored again and was fouled with 14.6 seconds left. He missed the free throw, leaving the Nets with a 123-118 lead. That made it a free-throw shooting contest. DeMarre Carroll made only one of two at the 13.7-second mark to keep it a two-possession game. But after Anthony Davis missed a 3, Carroll made another pair of foul shots to put it out of reach.
D'Angelo Russell led the Nets (18-21) with 22 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds, Harris added 21 points, Carroll had 19 and Dinwiddie scored 18. The Nets made 16 of 31 3-pointers, and their bench outscored the Pelicans (17-22), 55-5. Davis was a tremendous force with 34 points and 26 rebounds, Elfrid Payton scored 25, Julius Randle had 21 and Jrue Holiday added 20.
After going 9-1, the Nets finished 2018 by losing a road back-to-back at Charlotte and Milwaukee, where they trailed by as much as 26 points. Clearly fatigued, the Nets benefitted from three days off between games.
Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry said before the game that he discounted the Nets' loss to the Bucks because they rested key players. "If you look at it realistically, they're playing probably as well as any team right now," Gentry said. "They have a bunch of guys that have the ability to score, they love the pace of the game, they've got a bunch of shooters they can put out there, and they've been able to close games."
Gentry's assessment was spot-on, but his Pelicans could do little in the first half to slow a Nets offense that put together an extended run of 36-15 from the end of the first period to midway through the second period for a 66-42 lead. It was fueled by the team's hot bench scorers, including eight points each from Dinwiddie and Carroll and seven by Napier.
The Pelicans responded with a 12-0 run to cut that margin in half, but the Nets padded their halftime cushion to 73-58. At that point, they were shooting 61.4 percent for the game and 58.8 percent from 3-point range, and their bench had outscored the Pelicans' reserves by 39-5.
Russell scored seven points in a 13-5 burst early in the third quarter that pushed the Nets' lead back to 21 at 86-65. The Nets reached the 100-point mark on a dunk by Dinwiddie with 1:32 left in the third period. They never let their lead slip below 13 points in the third period and took at 105-87 advantage to the final quarter.
