NEW YORK _ Nothing comes easily for the Nets in Season One of their renewal project. When they took a season-high 29-point lead late in the third quarter, it was as though the Nets were feeling the effects of reaching that altitude against a team from the Mile-High City.
They allowed the Nuggets to fight back within two points when Wilson Chandler hit a right-wing 3-pointer with 16.3 seconds remaining Wednesday night at Barclays Center. But Denver rookie Jamal Murray, trying to inbound the ball with 13.8 seconds left in a 3-point game, threw it out of bounds, and the Nets held on for a 116-111 victory.
It was only the second win in the past 12 games for the Nets (6-15), who were led by 24 points from Brook Lopez and got 22 from Sean Kilpatrick, 19 from Bojan Bogdanovic, 16 from Joe Harris and 15 points and 12 rebounds from Trevor Booker. Wilson Chandler topped the Nuggets (8-14) with 27 points and 15 rebounds.
Denver arrived as the top rebounding team in the NBA, and that usually means trouble for the Nets, who ranked 16th before the game. "We're going to have to be strong in the paint," Nets coach Kenny Atkinson said before the game. "We're going to have to do a good job protecting the paint, rebounding. That's a challenge for us, and we'll see how we do tonight."
The answer after the first half of play was pretty darn good. The Nets opened the game with a 15-2 run that included six points by Booker, led by as many as 21 in the second quarter and reached halftime with a 68-52 lead, matching their largest lead of the season at intermission.
The highlight of the second quarter was the NBA debut of Caris LeVert, who was the No. 20 pick overall coming off foot surgery in March. He started the second quarter and made an immediate impact in the 5:15 he played with three steals and three rebounds that helped the Nets push their lead from 13 to 20 points. Clearly, his length is going to make a difference for the Nets in the passing lanes, and his speed was equally impressive.
But after blowing a 16-point second-quarter lead two nights earlier in a loss to Washington, the Nets couldn't feel comfortable heading to the third quarter, which often has been their downfall this season. This time, they came out loaded for bear, opening with a 24-9 run that included 10 points by Lopez to give them a season-high 29-point lead at 92-63.
In the middle of that stretch, Nuggets coach Mike Malone got himself ejected in what appeared to be an attempt to light a fire under his team. The Nuggets did mount a comeback, but it was as much because of contributions by the Nets as of their own doing. Starting late in the third period and lasting into the fourth, the Nets missed eight straight 3-point attempts, which fueled a 13-0 run by the Nuggets that cut their deficit to 12 points at 96-84.
A dunk by Anthony Bennett slowed the momentum temporarily, but the Nets kept firing and missing another trio of 3s, and the next thing they knew, their lead was down to 100-95 after Jameer Nelson banged in a 21-foot jumper with 6:32 left. When Kenneth Fareid made a layup with 4:31 left to cut the Nets' lead to 103-99, the Nuggets' run had reached 28-7, and the Nets shot 3-of-17 in that stretch, including 0-for-8 from 3-point range.
