Their first-round draft pick Caris LeVert finally made his NBA debut. The Nets finally built a third-quarter lead so big even they couldn’t find a way to blow it. And even after the Nuggets stormed back to turn a laugher into a nail-biter, the Nets pulled out a 116-111 decision that was more of an escape than a win.
“We took a punch, two punches, maybe five punches. We got off the floor and finished it out,’’ said coach Kenny Atkinson, whose Nets (6-15) held on for dear life before 14,159 at Barclays Center.
Their season-high 29-point lead in the third quarter was cut to two in the fourth before Sean Kilpatrick stemmed the tide.
“We played so well, like coach said, we deserved that game,” Kilpatrick said. “They played terrific, especially down the stretch with them being able to cut the lead down. But there was something in us that said we really have to stay in the lead.
“They threw a couple of punches at us, and we were able to counter them.”
The Nets let Denver grab 26 offensive rebounds for a staggering 32-14 edge in second-chance points. But the Nets were so offensively efficient early — behind Brook Lopez (24 points) and Kilpatrick (22) — that they built too big a lead to waste.
Brooklyn went ahead 92-63 in the third on a corner 3-pointer by rookie point guard Isaiah Whitehead. The Nets have been the worst third-quarter team in the league, but this time it was the fourth that almost got them. Almost being the operative word.
They were up 25 when their love of the 3-pointer almost cost them, with 10 of their next 13 shots — including six straight — coming from behind the arc. They missed them all.
“We got too comfortable with making 3s,’’ Kilpatrick said. “We know we have a third-quarter problem. But at the end of the day, we were able to get a win and actually make a run. That’s something that was good for us. We’re getting better by the day.”
The Nets led 96-79 going into the fourth, before the Nuggets ran off the first nine points to cut that lead to 12. The Nuggets extended their run to 32-8 as Jameer Nelson cut the Nets’ lead to 100-95. Newark native Kenneth Faried made a hook shot to slice it to 103-99 with 4:33 remaining.
But Kilpatrick hit four straight free throws, grabbed a rebound and got a shooter’s bounce on a 7-foot floater to make it 109-99 with 3:29 left.
Wilson Chandler’s corner 3-pointer got the Nuggets within 111-109 with 16.3 seconds left, and Trevor Booker (15 points, 12 boards) missed one of two free throws to give Denver a chance. But when Jamal Murray threw away the inbound pass, it was over.
At one point, the Nets had a long, energetic, young lineup of LeVert (22), Whitehead (21), Anthony Bennett (23), Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (21) and Bojan Bogdanovic (27) on the floor, an average age of 22.8.
“That’s a little bit of the future,’’ Atkinson said.
Arguably the most positive sign may have been LeVert finally getting on the floor. The rookie didn’t score, but he finished with four boards and three steals in nine minutes. He was the first Net with three steals in his NBA debut since Chris Childs in 1994.
“Basketball is a game of runs. We knew we made our run, they were going to make their run at some point. We did a good job of withstanding it and got the win,” said LeVert, who suffered a broken foot for the third time last Dec. 30 while at Michigan and had only played an 11-minute February cameo for the Wolverines before Wednesday. “It meant a lot. It was a great feeling to get out there with my teammates.
“It’s been so long since I’ve been in an actual game, so just to get back out there it was a great feeling,” said LeVert. “‘Just go out there and play hard.’ That’s what the coaches told me: ‘Don’t worry about making mistakes, play hard, play your game.’ ”