Nets collapse late in 4th vs. Spurs, need OT to snap 18-year drought in San Antonio
The Nets hadn’t won a game in San Antonio against the Spurs since Game 2 of the 2003 NBA Finals. They snapped that drought in a 124-113 OT win over Gregg Popovich’s crew on Monday, but it didn’t come easy.
The Nets held a 108-98 lead over the Spurs with 2:12 to go in the fourth quarter, then turned the ball over, missed shots and surrendered that lead as the game went into overtime. It all happened so fast: In one moment, the game was in the bag. In the next moment, not only was the lead gone, but the momentum had shifted all the way into the Spurs’ favor.
The Nets went on to seize that momentum back in the extra session, leaning on their stars. Kyrie Irving hit a pair of big threes and found Bruce Brown, a notably below average three-point shooter, for a top-of-the-key three that gave Brooklyn an eight-point OT lead. Irving took 23 shots to get to his 27 points but made two of his three attempts in the extra period to put the Nets over the hump.
James Harden also recorded his seventh triple double since joining the Nets via trade. The Spurs couldn’t contain Harden, whose elevated playmaking and scoring has vaulted him into the league’s Most Valuable Player conversation. Nets players have agreed Harden’s court vision and supreme control of the offense makes their lives easier. He finished with 30 points, 15 assists and 14 rebounds on the night.
The Spurs, though, refused to go away. Every San Antonio starter scored in double figures, led by DeMar DeRozan, who scored 22, and the pair of young guards, Lonnie Walker IV and Dejounte Murray who each scored 19. Patty Mills came off the bench and hit four threes for the Spurs, continuing his campaign as one of many Nets killers across the league.
The Spurs also had no answer, however, for Nic Claxton, the second-round pick out of Georgia who had his coming-out party in San Antonio.
The second-year forward-center out of Georgia hadn’t played most of the season dealing with tendonitis in his right knee but in his third game since returning from his injury, Claxton scored 17 points in 17 minutes and recorded three blocks, including one on DeRozan, after which Claxton told DeRozan, “Don’t come in here.”
It was a career high and a career night for a talented forward who is in line to take the reins as Brooklyn’s big man of the future — or be on the next plane out of town as his value skyrockets amid one of the ripest star-powered trade markets in recent NBA history.
Claxton has seen an uptick in minutes in the absence of Jeff Green, the veteran forward who suffered a shoulder injury in the fourth quarter against the Clippers as a byproduct of a screen from Patrick Beverley.
The Nets’ victory was a rebound after their eight-game win streak-snapping loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday. Brooklyn has one more game on the road, in Houston against Harden’s former Rockets, before the NBA All-Star break.
