ORLANDO, Fla. — The Nets wanted a bounce back. They rolled to an outright beating.
Brooklyn cruised to a wire-to-wire, 123-90 rout of the Magic before 13,882 at Amway Center on Wednesday night.
After suffering a galling fourth-quarter collapse two nights earlier in Chicago, they jumped on the young Magic early and piled it on late.
“It was a solid bounce-back game from Chicago,” coach Steve Nash said.
“We just wanted to come back and get that bad taste out of our mouth and perform,” James Harden added. “And we did an unbelievable job of that.”
It was a sweet victory, and Harden’s do-it-all game had a big hand in that.
The Nets’ 33-point margin was their fourth-biggest in a road win in franchise history, and the most lopsided since 2013.
Wednesday was their highest-scoring game of this season and tied their fewest points allowed. It was comprehensive. It was complete. And after the earlier implosion against the Bulls, it was much-needed.
“We knew if we came out, hit them, hit them first and just keep hitting them a couple times, we knew sooner or later the lead would keep growing. And that’s what we did,” DeAndre’ Bembry said. “We were up 10 going into the half and then just try to keep coming and going downhill at them. It’s a young team still learning. I think our veteran leadership just carried us through this one.”
Unsurprisingly, Harden and Kevin Durant were at the heart of that leadership.
Durant simply opted out of missing shots, pouring in a game-high 30 points on efficient 11 of 12 shooting, scoring from every level. And Harden was stellar with 17 points, 11 assists and a season-high 11 rebounds for his league-leading third triple-double of the season.
But both were essentially gone by the time Brooklyn (8-4) truly blew it open.
“It just shows growth on our part,” Harden said. “We’ve been preaching, especially when we’re up going into the fourth quarter, it’s an opportunity to show our championship habits, just being solid, making sure we get stops, and offensively, making sure that ball is moving and popping.
“That unit that came in did an unbelievable job of that, just sharing the basketball. And defensively being in the right spots at the right times, gang rebounding. Offensively, they were sharing the ball, and whoever was open had confidence to knock it down. It was a great effort from us, especially a bounce back.”
The Nets had seen a 19-point first-half lead cut to 85-74 with 1:36 left in the third of a free throw by Terrence Ross (team-high 17 points). But that’s when Brooklyn mounted an extended 25-5 run, with its stars in for just a minute-and-a-half of it.
By the time Harden found Durant for an alley-oop with 6.7 seconds to play in the third, the lead was up to 94-75. The bench reeled off the first eight points of the fourth, a step-back by LaMarcus Aldridge making it 102-75 with 8:50 to play.
Aldridge had a vintage performance, with the veteran center notching 21 points with eight rebounds. He led a superb bench effort with three reserves in double figures. Jevon Carter had 10 points and five assists, while Bembry added 11 on 4 of 5 shooting.
With the Brooklyn offense having struggled to generate anything in the paint Monday in Chicago, Harden ensured that wouldn’t be a problem against the Magic. He drove aggressively from the start, taking heavy contact from Jalen Suggs that had him bleeding over the left eye. No foul was called.
No matter. He drove and warped the defense, and created easy looks. And once the Nets had the momentum, they didn’t let up.
“That’s really what you want to do, finish quarters, finish halves off the right way. We got a lead and we got some momentum and you got to take advantage,” Durant said. “I think we did that in the second half.”