The Nets, in battle and without Kyrie Irving, needed something positive in the worst possible way. What they got was a sublime performance from Kevin Durant.
The former MVP looked like one, lifting the Nets back from a huge deficit to a 122-116 victory over the Nuggets on Tuesday night at Barclays Center.
The Nets followed with 18 points in the third quarter before rising to take the lead. Passing again, 113-111, at the end of the fourth quarter, they scored 10 unanswered points to give the Nuggets.
“It was definitely needed, especially after a bad loss in the last game and especially since 18,” Durant said. “You saw that the boys are proud and want to go out and compete. And everyone came with her. ”
Durant had a maximum score of 34 points, 13 assists and nine rebounds. Forty of his points came during a 32-7 round in the third quarter, which turned an 18-point hole into a seven-point lead. He and defensive ace Bruce Brown led the rally along the way.
Brown finished with 16 points and six rebounds, while Caris LeVert added 20 points, six assists and five rebounds.
“That man is different,” Brown said of Durant. “I think I stole recoveries and he didn’t get a triple-double. I didn’t even know; I would have let him get it. But that man is different.
“It’s just a bucket of walking. … I’ve never seen a player like this before. ”
The Nets, who drew 6-6, play the Knicks at the Garden on Wednesday.
“It was a great victory. I needed him, I think, for our souls. A lot of things were thrown at us, a lot of new things, ”said coach Steve Nash, who challenged his team to the break. “I asked them to compete in the second half, to raise their physical level, to ask and compete and to win small battles. That’s what they did and they got a victory “.
Denver’s Nikola Jokic (23 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds) and Jamal Murray (20 points) gave the Nets earlier.
A pair of Murray baskets gave the Nuggets an 18-point lead at the start of the third quarter, first at 74-56, then again at 76-58, with 10:32 remaining in the period.
Then the Nets put together an eight-minute run, 32-7, to take control of the game. A team that could not buy a stop in the first half forced the Nuggets to shoot only 3 of 12 with four turnovers in that stretch.
This fueled the fast break, and Durant had 14 points in the sprint, along with four assists – the last was a feed to Prince Taurean for a 90-83 finger kick with 2:36 left in the third. .
The Nuggets turned the lead on 111-109, before the Nets equalized 111 on an offensive ploy and Brown’s strong force.
Jokic put Denver ahead 113-111 before the Nets used a 10-0 run to seal it. Brown received a jump to tie it and, after an offensive foul by Will Barton, added a basic float for a 115-113 advantage at one end and a defensive side on the other.
Durant’s jumper made it 117-113 with 1:14 to play, and the Nets forced a Murray miss. Durant’s 3-point dagger froze him.
“I feel like I’ve been in a good pit and knocked down,” said Durant, who passed Adrian Dantley, Elgin Baylor and Dwyane Wade on the NBA All-Time Score List. – I mean, I feel good, man.