NEW YORK _ The basketball gods finally took pity on the Nets. They coughed up a 14-point second-quarter lead, but this time, they came back to score a 106-105 overtime victory against the Raptors, who came in with the best record in the Eastern Conference Friday night at Barclays Center.
The win snapped an eight-game losing streak. D'Angelo Russell scored six of his 29 points in OT but committed a turnover with 24.1 seconds left that gave the last shot to the Raptors, a 3 by Fred Van Vleet that missed at the buzzer.
The Nets got a fourth-quarter spark when Joe Harris hit a 3, was fouled and completed a four-point play for an 85-83 lead with 8:05 left. The Nets pushed that lead to 94-87 when Spencer Dinwiddie scored six points in a 9-2 surge. But that's where the Raptors responded with a 9-0 run to regain a 96-94 lead on a corner three by Raptors star Kawhi Leonard with 2:23 to play.
Baskets by Dinwiddie and Jarrett Allen put the Nets in front again at 98-96 with 1:19 left, but Pascal Siakam tied on a layup 10 seconds later and a Russell turnover gave Leonard the chance for a go-ahead basket. Facing a tough contest from Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, he missed a jumper in the paint with five seconds left. Dinwiddie missed on a drive at the other end as the game went to overtime tied at 98.
Russell's OT turnover could have costly, but his time, fortune smiled on the Nets (9-18), who also got 17 points and eight assists from Dinwiddie, 12 points and 10 rebounds from Allen and 15 rebounds from Ed Davis. Leonard led the Raptors (21-6) with 32 points and Jonas Valanciunas added 24.
Coming off the Nets' eighth blown double-digit of the season in a loss to the Thunder on Wednesday, coach Kenny Atkinson decided to make room in his rotation for second-round rookie Rodions Kurucs, who provided an infusion of energy in a Monday comeback that fell short against Cleveland and then never got off the bench against Oklahoma City.
Speaking about Kurucs before the game to Newsday, Atkinson said, "You think about the rebounds we didn't get (against the Thunder). He's going to play tonight. I think we need an injection of athleticism, we need an injection of energy, and we need an injection of rebounding.
"The guy is our best rebounder per minute. He's amazing. That's a weakness of ours. And listen, I think he's earned it. It's a small sample size, but where we are, we need to try something different."
Showing their customary resilience, the Nets jumped out to an 11-point lead right out of the gate at 13-2, but a late Raptors 10-3 run cut the deficit to 24-20 at the end of the first quarter. Sure enough Kurucs entered the game in the final two minutes of the first period and then scored four quick points early in the second quarter that helped ignite a 16-3 run that pushed the Nets' lead to a first-half high of 14 at 40-26.
By that time, Kurucs was back on the bench and did not return in the second quarter. At that point, the game took a U-turn as the Raptors put together an extended 23-7 run to grab a 49-47 lead. Leonard had nine points during that stretch and Valanciunas had seven. One major problem for the Nets in the first half was the imbalance of foul calls that was 16-5 against them. As a result, they were outscored 15-3 at the foul line in the first half, which ended with the teams tied at 53.
In the third quarter, Russell scored 11 points in a 13-4 run that gave the Nets a 74-70 lead, and he totaled 15 points in the period, which ended with the Nets clinging to an 80-79 lead. Once again, Kurucs got a cameo at the end of the period and scored the final Nets basket of the quarter.
