Nets Continue To Improve With Impressive 111-104 Win Against Hornets
In what was a close matchup, the Nets take down the Hornets 111-104 Friday night in the Spectrum Center. Brooklyn has now won seven of their last nine games.
Don’t look now, but the Nets have seemed to turn a corner since the Indiana Pacers blew them out on their home court 115-86 back on November 18.
Since then the Nets are not only 7-2 throughout this stretch, but are also averaging 113 PPG, 55.2 RPG and 26.1 APG. With the exception of their PPG being three points below their average, they’re exceeding their season averages of 47.2 RPG and 24.4 APG.
Brooklyn showed up big time on the boards outrebounding the Hornets 49-34. The two main catalysts for this were Nets big men Jarrett Allen and DeAndre Jordan. Both had double-doubles. Allen scored 14 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Jordan scored 16 points and grabbed 13 rebounds.
Oh and another player had a double-double. Spencer Dinwiddie, who’s been on a tear since Kyrie’s been out these past 11 games. Last night he scored 12 points and dished out 13 assists.
Another category that the Nets dominated the Hornets in was points in the paint. They scored 50 to the Hornets’ 32. This has been Brooklyn’s strong suit all season, as they average 51.0 PPG in the paint, ranking them the fifth best in the league in this category.
Lastly, just four games after thanksgiving the Nets are still in the giving mood, as they dished out 35 assists tonight; +11 than their season average.
Despite dominating in all of these categories the score was close for the most of the game. The Nets were even down by two at the half 57-55.
However Brooklyn had two strong quarters to close the game out, winning both.
For Charlotte, the offense in the second half was what was most to blame, as both teams were neck and neck in the first. Both shot 47% from the field and 50% from behind the arc.
In the second half Brooklyn still shot 47% from the field, but Charlotte dropped to 39%.
“They went on their runs, we couldn’t come back from it. Kept trying to get stops but offensive rebounds, turnovers hurt us tonight big time, and that was really the key,” said Hornets guard Devonte’ Graham. “You’ve got to give them credit. They did a good job of adjusting offensively. I think they had 11 [threes] in the first half and then we came out and tried to defend that and they had an answer for it so you’ve just got to give them credit.”
The Nets’ next matchup is against the 14-6 Nuggets on Sunday.
