Thanks to their improved play over the past few weeks, the Nets have an opportunity for a trip to the postseason.
If the Nets make the playoffs and play the way they did against the Hawks on Wednesday night, they will have a chance to make it longer than a weekend getaway.
Though the Nets lost 114-111 to Atlanta on Wednesday night and fell into eighth place in the Eastern Conference in the process, they finally played like a team capable of at least giving Atlanta something to think about if they meet in the first round of the playoffs. The Nets had lost the first three meetings with the Hawks by an average of more than 20 points per game, and none of those games were particularly close in the fourth quarter.
“We just didn’t need to get blown out, period,” Nets coach Lionel Hollins said. “It wasn’t about that. We had to go out and compete against this team because we needed a win … but hopefully we learned what type of collective effort we need to play against this team.”
And if the East standings finish up the way they stood late Wednesday night, the Nets (36-42) will get another chance to face the conference-leading Hawks. They fell into a tie with the Celtics (who hold the tiebreaker over the Nets thanks to a 3-1 edge in the season series) after Boston won in Detroit, and are now one game ahead of the Pacers and Heat in ninth.
The Nets treated owner Mikhail Prokhorov, who was taking in just his third game of the season and his first since the opening week of November, to a thrilling finish. After trailing the entire game, mostly by around 10 points, the Nets stormed to their first lead of the game on a bucket by Joe Johnson with 3:39 remaining. That basket capped a 16-3 run, gave the Nets a 109-108 lead and unleashed a level of noise and energy in Barclays Center that hadn’t been heard all season.
“It was super loud,” said Deron Williams, who had 10 points and 13 assists. “I thought the crowd was great tonight. … They were into the game from the start.”
The crowd stayed into it until the end, again going crazy when Williams drove in from the right wing and banked home a runner that made it 111-110 Nets with 33.5 seconds left. But the joy was short-lived, as the Hawks took the lead for good on an Al Horford dunk with 19.1 seconds remaining.
Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer drew up a spectacular play, with lethal 3-point shooter Kyle Korver getting the ball after coming open off a screen. When both Williams and Brook Lopez reacted by trying to get to Korver, he threw a bullet pass to Horford under the basket for the easiest two points he’ll ever get to make it 112-111.
“That was pretty much the design of the play,” Williams said. “It was for us to help, and he just whipped it down there to Horford.”
“I’ll definitely be thinking about it a lot tonight,” said Lopez, who finished with 26 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks. “I’ll be dreaming about that.”
The Nets still had their chances after that, though, with Jarrett Jack and Bojan Bogdanovic both getting wide open looks from 3-point range on the next possession, but missing. Then, after Jeff Teague made two free throws with 2.7 seconds left, Johnson caught the ball in the corner, turned and fired up a shot over the outstretched arm of DeMarre Carroll that looked on line from the moment it left his hand.
But much like the team’s fourth-quarter comeback, it wasn’t quite good enough, going halfway down before rattling out and sending the Nets to a loss that both proved they can compete with the Hawks, but left them with plenty of work to do to ensure they get the chance to do so.