Nets reaction: Joe Harris, Kevin Durant lead Brooklyn past Charlotte

Mission bounce-back was in motion against a deplete Hornets team on Friday night for the Brooklyn Nets. Steve Nash now had the luxury of using two familiar weapons for this game, weapons that he couldn’t unleash against the Sixers: Kevin Durant and Blake Griffin.

Things did not go as planned when Charlotte started off the game shooting a magnificent 12-15 (80%) from the field. They had themselves in front with a lead as a big as 14. Shortly after, Brooklyn had no choice but to clean up in the second quarter. They outscored the Hornets 32-26 in the period to get the game tied at 61 all at the half.

The game was close in the second half for quite some time until Kevin Durant, Joe Harris, and Landry Shamet had enough. Durant not only dunked on somebody this game, but he also dropped 25 points along with 11 assists, making it his second game this season with double digit assists.

Harris added 26 points on 8-12 shooting from the field while Shamet contributed 20 points with six made threes. The final score was 130-115, making it Brooklyn’s 38th win of the season.

Slow starts are just something the Nets can't seem to fully fix still

Ever since the season started, slow starts have been haunting the Nets at the most inopportune times on their quest to the earning a number one seed. Friday's game against the Hornets was one of those games. As mentioned earlier, Charlotte started off the game shooting 80% from the field - and this put the Nets in a deep hole that they didn't need to dig for themselves. Perhaps it's just a mental thing for them. Or having the target on their back every night may be too much to handle. There's still a lot more to learn about this team.

Landry Shamet has been putting in pain even without stroking it from deep

Landry Shamet has already proven to coaches and fans that he has found his stroke from downtown. However, it is his ability to put the ball on the floor, his work in facilitating for teammates, and also defending that has been standing out as of late. Against Charlotte off the bench, he had a plus-minus of +25 and took on the duty of handling the ball more considering the Nets have had a lack of guards this month due to injury. Lately, he has been starting to welcome that role for himself with Brooklyn more, considering he took on similar duties in college.

Joe Harris is going to have a field day when James Harden returns

Joe Harris went 8-12 from the field on Friday against the Hornets and he also went 6-9 from three. A big part of why he was able to find clean looks was because of how much space Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving create for him. When James Harden gets back, it's only going to get better for him. The Beard is not only the league leader in assists, but he is also a floor spacer that can manipulate defenses to primarily focus on him, similar to the other members of the Big 3. If Harris is shooting like this now, he is going to have a field day when Harden returns.

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