Rockets coach Ime Udoka dismissively calling the Nets a “lower-level crew” added gasoline to the Nets’ fireplace.
And so they burned the Rockets, beautiful them with a 99-97 come-from-behind win earlier than 16,564 at Barclays Heart.
The Nets pulled out a recreation that seemed all however misplaced on D’Angelo Russell’s dramatic winner.
Trailing 97-93 with 8.1 seconds left to play, Keon Johnson (team-high 22 factors) drilled a 28-footer to tug the Nets inside one.
Then with Houston inbounding the ball, Amen Thompson threw an incredibly dangerous move and the Nets stole it.
Tosan Evbuomwan bought his lengthy arms on it and tapped it out to Russell, who hit an enormous 28-footer of his personal with 3 seconds left in regulation to place the Nets forward and ship the bench into wild celebration.
Jalen Inexperienced’s miss on the buzzer sealed the comeback.
“Euphoria,” was how Nic Claxton described it. “Caught me off guard. However we simply caught with it. All people, we stayed optimistic all through the entire recreation, although it was down and simply we stayed collectively, and we bought the win. It was a superb feeling.”
The Nets earned a 3rd straight win, and swept the season collection with Houston.
Brooklyn is the one East crew to defeat Houston twice this season, doing so within the span of 4 days.
Following Saturday’s win in Houston, Udoka — who was a really actual candidate for the Nets job in 2022 when Steve Nash bought fired — known as them a “lower-level crew.”
Jordi Fernandez used it as bulletin board materials, and motivational fodder.
“All people took it private,” Johnson stated. “Simply because we are available in day-after-day and compete, not even simply towards different groups, however we competed to our fullest towards one another. So simply to learn one thing like that, it was simply a variety of gasoline on fireplace.”
Udoka had been a former Nets assistant underneath Nash, and Claxton is likely one of the few gamers left from that crew. He admitted his outdated coach’s feedback had been incentive.
“Yeah,” Claxton stated. “You already know, Ime, that’s my man. That undoubtedly added a variety of gasoline to our fireplace, him popping out saying what he stated.So, yeah, we all know what it’s, however that undoubtedly made us wish to win the sport extra, for positive.”
The Nets (17-33) snapped an 11-game dwelling shedding skid. They hadn’t gained at Barclays Heart since a Dec. 4 victory over Indiana.
Now their subsequent 4 video games main into the All-Star break are all at dwelling, together with video games towards fellow lottery hopefuls Washington and Charlotte.
The Nets coughed up an 11-2 second-quarter run.
Alperen Sengun, who missed Monday’s loss towards the Knicks with a calf damage, discovered Inexperienced for a 3-pointer to go away the Nets down 40-36 with 2:45 within the half.
Then they switched locations, Inexperienced discovering Sengun, who completed with 24 factors and 20 rebounds, for a layup to construct the deficit to 57-49 with 7:41 within the third.
The Nets responded with 14 unanswered factors to grab the lead.
Claxton capped the blitz on a jumper with 4:22 left within the third, placing Brooklyn forward 63-57.
They held the Rockets to 4 straight misses and a few turnovers in the course of the run,
However Sengun put Houston again up 89-88 on a hook shot with 3 ½ minutes left, then powered inside to make it 92-88, flexing his muscle groups after drawing a foul on Ziaire Williams.
Williams answered with a left-corner 3-pointer from D’Angelo Russell 92-91 with 47.5 seconds to play. And Russell hit the final word winner within the waning seconds.
“Yeah I feel that’s why this recreation is so enjoyable, enjoyable to observe, and play during and provides credit score to the blokes. They saved believing, saved urgent, and created that turnover, and also you don’t make that massive shot,” Fernandez stated. “All through the entire recreation, once more, we performed exhausting after which the main focus was there. It wasn’t good during, however that’s how we gained this.”