PHILADELPHIA — After a season-opening humiliation in Milwaukee, when the Nets showed no fight and no grit, they were challenged Friday by the 76ers. And when it came to winning time, the Nets responded.
Though shorthanded, the Nets stormed back for a 114-109 come-from-behind, gut-check victory over the Sixers. They erased a double-digit deficit with just five minutes left, stunning the sellout crowd of 20,367 and finding a toughness they’re going to need this season.
“For us, we just wanted to win. We wanted to come in here and do whatever it took to win,” James Harden said. “We didn’t play well our first game, so we wanted to bounce back and put it together for four quarters. And I think we did that.”
What it took was a stunning comeback. After digging themselves into a 20-6 hole in the first quarter, the Nets were still down 10 with just over five minutes left to play. They looked destined for an 0-2 start to the season, but turned destiny around behind Kevin Durant and LaMarcus Aldridge.
Durant led the way with 29 points, 15 rebounds, a 12 assists and a huge weakside block. Aldridge bounced back from a poor night in Milwaukee with 23 points off the bench, including nine in the Nets’ game-closing 16-1 run.
“We were relentless with our competition, our willingness to fight for good looks, our willingness to scrap defensively,” head coach Steve Nash said. “Their willingness to continue to compete and believe was the reason why they won the game.”
The Nets harassed the Sixers into going 0-for-9 with two turnovers down the stretch.
“Just effort, man. When you have your best player go make a crazy block, you’ve got to follow him. The whole night, he was doing it, assists, rebounds, points, steals, whatever it is,” said Aldridge, who added the Nets were stung by the opener. “Obviously that wasn’t us, so we knew we had to come out and grind it out. We had a slow start, but we knew we hadn’t played to the level we could play. Guys kept pecking away at it, defense kept getting better and we kept pulling back.”
The Nets trailed 108-98 after a Joe Harris turnover led to a Matisse Thybulle alley oop and sent Nash scurrying for a timeout with 5:32 remaining. But the Nets didn’t give up another field goal.
After experimenting with a big lineup — Nic Claxton and Blake Griffin in the frontcourt, and Harris in the backcourt with James Harden (20 points, eight assists) — Nash went small. He pulled Harris and went with the tiny, harassing duo of Patty Mills and Jevon Carter. He plugged in Aldridge and let the veteran feast in the midrange and the pick-and-pop game with Harden.
Six unanswered points cut the deficit to four. The Nets forced a pair of Danny Green missed 3s, sandwiched around a Mills finger roll, to pull within 108-106. After the Nets converged on Joel Embiid (19 points, eight rebounds, four blocks) to force a miss with a minute to play, Harden found Aldridge for a tying dunk. The veteran center got fouled and hit the go-ahead free throw with 48 seconds remaining. The Nets didn’t trail again.
Tobias Harris (23 points) missed a floater, and Aldridge — who was 10-for-12 from the floor — sank two more free throws for a three-point edge with 16 seconds left in regulation. The Nets held on to ensure there would be no overtime.
“We were able to stay the course and stay with it and not get down on ourselves, and we pulled it even at the end of the fourth,” said Durant. “It was all off our intensity on defense.”