When the Nets play defense, they are impossible to stop.
The Nets scored 23 points on fast-break opportunities, including seven off Hawks turnovers, that proved critical to Brooklyn’s 132-128 overtime win over the Hawks in Atlanta.
The Nets have now won three games in a row after beating the Heat in back-to-back outings in Brooklyn. A possession pivotal to the Nets’ win occurred in the opening minute of overtime, when Joe Harris stole the ball from Hawks forward John Collins and got the ball to James Harden, who pushed it up the floor and found Jeff Green for a dunk.
That dunk gave the Nets a four-point lead, and in overtime, four points can be tough to make up.
A small deficit can feel like double digits when a team plays defense, and the Nets held the Hawks to 10 points in overtime. The Nets have more offensive starpower in three players than most franchises see in a decade, but defense has been the team’s blind spot.
Even in a high-scoring game, Brooklyn found a way to answer the bell on the defensive end: The Nets held All-Star guard Trae Young to a 7-for-22 shooting night, led largely by spark plug Bruce Brown, who scored 12 points off the bench.
Bench scoring was scarce early on. Brown scored the only two bench points Brooklyn tallied in the entire first half. Veteran forward Green made his presence felt in the second half with a flurry of rim-rattling dunks, part of his 11 points on the night. Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot only made one shot, and rookie big man Reggie Perry played just five minutes before getting in foul trouble.
Brooklyn sacrificed its depth to appease the stars, landing Harden in exchange for the vast majority of its young players and draft assets. The stars showed up in Atlanta, each scoring more than 20 points for just the second time since the Nets acquired Harden.
Harden had his most aggressive game alongside both Irving and Durant, and in one second-quarter stretch, he scored 11 of the team’s 13 points. He finished with 31 points on 9-of-20 shooting to go with 15 assists and eight rebounds, and has recorded at least 10 assists in all but one game since his trade to Brooklyn. Irving scored 26 points, and Durant turned in 32, making half his shots.
The Nets, again, will be able to score at will, home to three of the best scorers in NBA history. Defense, however, is what will win big, and is what helped the Nets secure a win against a Hawks team that beat them earlier this season.
