The Nets played without Kevin Durant for the first time all season, their star sidelined with a sprained right shoulder. And they found a way to grind out a workmanlike win without him, one that was far more hard work than work of art.
The Nets fought back from a huge deficit for a 115-113 come-from-behind victory over Orlando before 16,966 at Barclays Center.
Durant has been favoring the shoulder since hurting it Nov. 8 in Chicago. With the Nets hosting the last place team in the East — and not playing again until Monday in Cleveland — they stole a chance to rest Durant. And stole a win without him, thanks to 36 points from James Harden and rallying from a 19-point deficit.
“I don’t think it’s ever pressure. I probably had to do a little bit more as far as being aggressive,” Harden said. “I had a lot of good looks as far as layups, floaters. They just didn’t go in, but I had some pretty good shots. I think we did a really good job, especially from the second quarter on of getting great shots.
“Defensively, we were pretty locked-in. Guys stepped up, honestly. James [Johnson] stepped up, LaMarcus [Aldridge] did a good job closing, Patty [Mills] did what he does, Blake [Griffin] finished well at the rim. So it was a collective effort.”
With no shooters to space the floor — the Nets missing Durant, Joe Harris and Kyrie Irving — Harden struggled to finish, going just 7 of 25. But he drove aggressively and ran the show, with 10 rebounds, eight assists and went 19 of 20 from the free throw line.
Mills had 22 points, Johnson 17 and 10 boards, while Aldridge closed with 11 of his 15 points in the final eight minutes.
The Nets stormed back from a 62-43 second-quarter hole, mounting an extended 44-17 run that spanned intermission and flipped the game.
The Nets (12-5) have now won 10 of their last 12 games and moved a half-game ahead of Miami atop the East. And they expect to get Durant back Monday.
“We don’t feel concerned that it’ll linger or that he’d miss the next game,” coach Steve Nash said. “It’s just a pocket in the season where it’s not like he sits and plays [Saturday] or Sunday. He actually gets a few days rest on top of rest of the shoulder, so there was multiple factors that made it attractive for us to choose this game for him to sit.”
The Nets got away with it. Barely.
After allowing 62.5 percent shooting in the first quarter — and 6 of 10 from deep — they held Orlando to just 38.5 percent and 8 of 28 the rest of the way.
The Nets allowed eight straight points to fall behind, 58-39. And it was still 62-43 after R.J. Hampton’s 3 with 3:33 left in the half. But that’s when the Nets finally dug in on defense, reeling off 10 unanswered points to get back into the game.
Initially befuddled by Orlando’s zones — daring their non-shooters to shoot — Harden started finding the holes and capped a 10-0 run to send the Nets into the locker room within single digits.
They kept the momentum, with consecutive 3s from Mills putting them ahead, 73-70.
A DeAndre’ Bembry free throw capped the 44-17 run, and made it 87-79 with 1:35 left in the third.
The Nets saw Orlando briefly retake the lead at 101-99 on Cole Anthony’s pull-up. But an Aldridge and-one put the Nets back ahead, and his offensive rebound and turnaround hook shot made it 104-101 with 5:35 remaining.
The Nets led 112-109, when Terrence Ross made just one of two free throws. But Harden hit two at the other end for a four-point edge with 9.2 seconds left.
“We knew that they were going to come out with confidence. We took that punch and we did what we did. We gathered up and played our basketball,” said Johnson, key in the 44-17 run that changed the game. “Just believing in our defensive schemes and executing it. We weren’t executing, we weren’t talking. As soon as we buckled down, realized this team was in here for real, then we figured it out.”