The Brooklyn Nets‘ front office would probably prefer its players not win games right now, but the scrappy bunch led by first-year coach Jordi Fernandez doesn’t care about lottery odds. Nothing proved that as much as their stunning 99-97 come-from-behind victory over the Houston Rockets on Tuesday.
With less than 10 seconds remaining, the Nets trailed by four at 97-93 and were taking the ball out on the sideline. After a bit of an issue getting the ball inbounds, Tosan Evbuomwan found Keon Johnson on the opposite wing for a quick 3-pointer that hit nothing but net and cut the deficit to one at 97-96.
In all of the excitement, the Rockets panicked trying to get the ball in bounds themselves. Amen Thompson tried to force a bounce pass to Dillon Brooks, but it went straight to Evbuomwan, who found D’Angelo Russell at the top of the key with a tip pass. Russell obliged with another swish from behind the arc to improbably put the Nets in front, 99-97, with 3.4 seconds to play.
Down on the other end, Jalen Green missed a pull-up 3 at the buzzer to give the Nets their most improbable victory of the season, and second in a row over the Rockets.
After the Nets beat the Rockets in Houston on Saturday, Rockets coach Ime Udoka called the Nets a “lower-level team.” The Nets, understandably, felt disrespected.
“When we walked in, Jordi showed us what Ime said [Saturday] night,” Day’Ron Sharpe said on Monday. “They look at us like we’re not competition… We’ve got to come in with the same mindset, the same aggression, the same bully mentality. We can’t get bullied. We’ve got to bully them so we can win both games back-to-back.”
That’s exactly what the Nets did.
Now 17-33 on the season, the Nets remain 4.5 games out of the Play-In Tournament in the East, but have improved to the sixth-worst record in the league. They could certainly fall back below the Toronto Raptors and Charlotte Hornets for the fourth-worst record, but “catching” any of the three worst teams is going to be difficult with how hard the Nets play.
Regardless of what happens over the final few months of the regular season, the Nets are going to get a top-10 pick, but the brass would obviously prefer if they have a realistic shot at No. 1, which comes with the opportunity to draft Cooper Flagg.
