CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Nets were salty after the way their game in Philadelphia ended Thursday night. They were angry at the way the refs called it down the stretch, but far more with themselves for putting the outcome in somebody else’s hands.
They made up for it Saturday against the Hornets.
After letting the 76ers off the hook two days earlier, this time when the Nets got the Hornets down they stepped on their proverbial necks in a 115-86 rout before 19,079 at the Spectrum Center.
Somehow against the Sixers, the Nets blew a 20-point cushion and a six-point lead with just over two minutes left before losing in overtime. But on Saturday, when they led by nine in the third quarter, they used withering defense to go on a 33-15 run that spanned into the fourth.
“We let a lot of teams back in to these type of games. I was expecting that it was going to be close — I know we were up [10] at half — but they’re going to come back and it’d be nip-and-tuck,” coach Kenny Atkinson said. “That’s one of the few times we didn’t really let the team come back at all into the game and kept pushing and stamped them out.
“There was a chip on our shoulder. We wanted to prove something. I felt it before the game, I feel it in that locker room. We can still do something special. There’s enough talent in there to do something special, that’s for sure.”
The Nets came in ranked eighth overall in defensive rating and third in the league since the start of December. And they turned in one of their better performances, led by Caris LeVert.
The Nets had eight players in double-figures, led by Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot’s 21 points. Garrett Temple had his first career double-double (15 points and a career-high 11 boards). LeVert scored 17. But it was on the other end where LeVert was a menace.
LeVert’s six steals were a career-high and the most by a Net all season. Charlotte’s Devonte’ Graham had eviscerated the Nets for 40 points on Dec. 11, but this time LeVert held him to just six points, two assists and 1-of-10 shooting from the floor.
“It was just trying to make everything tough on him,” LeVert said of Graham, who was averaging 17.8 points and 7.8 assists. “I know things he likes to do, so I just tried to take him out of that, not give him easy looks.
“But it wasn’t just me. We switched a lot on ballscreens and Wilson [Chandler] moved his feet extremely well, Spencer [Dinwiddie] moved his feet, a lot of guys played great defense. It was a team effort.”
The Nets led 55-45 at the break, but rather than watch film as usual, they spoke about the need to do the little things, to pay attention to detail, to pay their dues for the respect they want. Atkinson spoke, the ultra-verbal DeAndre Jordan spoke. And everybody absorbed.
“Kenny spoke and said just keep doing what we’re doing, we’re playing well, step on their necks,” Temple said. “And that’s what we were able to do in the second half, built the lead even further than it was.”
Leading 57-48, the Nets blew the game open.
It started with seven unanswered points, Taurean Prince hitting a right-wing 3-pointer and another bucket to pad the lead to 12. After LeVert elevated for a steal, Jarrett Allen’s dunk made it 64-48.
LeVert had three steals in a run that hit 33-15, his layup 30 seconds into the fourth quarter making it 90-63.
“No question for more reasons than one we had a chip on our shoulder. But the way we played that Philly game we let one get away. And we know the race we’re in we’ve got to win games like,” Temple said. “The rest of the season we have to have that same mentality for there to be a chip on our shoulder, an extra level of focus, attention to detail.”
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