NEW YORK _ Playing without D'Angelo Russell, who suffered a mildly sprained right knee the previous night in Orlando, the Nets turned to Spencer Dinwiddie as their third starting point guard of the season. Dinwiddie was a development project from last season who blossomed with the game of his NBA life to lead the Nets to a 112-107 upset of the defending Eastern Conference champion Cavaliers and LeBron James Wednesday night at Barclays Center.
Dinwiddie scored 10 of his team-high 22 points in a pulsating fourth quarter that saw the Nets (3-2) blow a 14-point lead but come back to win with a 15-7 run at the end that included a deep 3 by Dinwiddie that gave them the lead for good. Dinwiddie also had five rebounds and six assists.
The Nets also got stellar performances from Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (19), Allen Crabbe (19) and DeMarre Carroll (18). James had a triple-double for the Cavs with 29 points, 10 rebounds and 13 assists.
Down by 14 early in the fourth quarter, the Cavs seemed primed for the upset. But back-to-back 3s by Jose Calderon and Kyle Korver triggered a 21-5 Cavs run that included six points from James as they finally regained the lead at 5:16 on a right-wing 3 by Kevin Love.
After going through a stretch in which they missed five straight shots and committed two turnovers, Dinwiddie tied it at 94 with a bank shot, and moments later, Crabbe nailed a contested 3 for a 97-96 Nets lead. It was back and forth from there in lights-out fashion.
A Dinwiddie 3 tied it at 100, but Korver responded with a 3 at the other end. Carroll then hit a corner 3 for the Nets to knot the game at 103 with 1:52 left. With a chance to go in front, though, Carroll was called for failure to inbounds in five seconds under his own basket at the 1:15 mark.
But after Love made only one of two foul shots, Dinwiddie buried a deep 3 for a 106-104 Nets lead and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson followed with a driving layup for a 108-104 margin. Korver responded with a 3-pointer, but Hollis-Jefferson made one of two foul shots to push the advantage to 109-107.
James was fouled on his way to the basket with 7.6 seconds to go and missed the first free throw. Then, he purposely missed the second and Carroll rebounded and was fouled. He only made one for a 110-107 lead, so, the Cavs had one more shot. They threw a long inbounds pass that a replay review ruled was off James' fingertips out of bounds. Nets ball, and Dinwiddie wrapped it up with two foul shots.
Five minutes into the game, James had scored eight points to help give the Cavs a 13-4 lead over the Nets, who made just two of their first 11 shots. The momentum shifted when back-to-back 3s by Carroll sparked a 22-10 Nets run that gave them a 26-23 lead at the end of the opening period.
Although the Nets entered the game as the top-scoring team in the NBA, there was a question about how they would fare without leading scorer Russell. "Just continue to play basketball the right way," Dinwiddie said. "With our offense and its fluidity, if we all come out and play aggressive and do the right thing, the ball will find who it needs to find, and we'll be all right."
The second quarter was proof of that. It was played at a thrilling pace with 12 lead changes and five ties before a 3 by Dinwiddie gave the Nets a 55-52 halftime lead. In the third quarter, Crabbe heated up to hit a trio of 3s, and a steal leading to a dunk by Caris LeVert gave the Nets a 13-point lead just before the quarter ended with them up, 84-73.
