The Nets got the bounce-back win they wanted. But the much-needed rest for Kevin Durant? That they wasted — along with a huge lead.
Brooklyn rebounded from Sunday’s loss to league-leading Boston, cruising to a 122-116 victory over the Hornets before 16,903 Wednesday at Barclays Center.
The Nets (14-12) have now improved to 5-1 on this season-long seven-game homestand and won eight of their past 11. But dig below the surface, and there are plenty of nits to pick with this one. Like turning a laugher into a nail-biter.
Kyrie Irving poured in a game-high 33 points and season-high nine assists. Durant added 29 points, nine rebounds and eight assists in 36:28, and the Nets needed every single one of those points and minutes.
With Durant having logged more minutes on his 34-year-old legs than any player in the NBA, Wednesday offered a golden opportunity to steal some much-needed rest. The injury-riddled Hornets (7-18) came into the night playing without LaMelo Ball and Gordon Hayward, a veritable gift from the league schedule-makers.
And the Nets wasted that gift.
Brooklyn built a 23-point cushion in the second quarter, only to let it shrivel to three in the fourth with Durant on the bench.
With the lead down to 104-101, Seth Curry (20 points) hit a 3-pointer to stanch the bleeding with 7:14 to play. Durant checked in 11 seconds later.
Terry Rozier (29 points) pulled Charlotte within 109-107. And after Nic Claxton missed a pair at the foul line with 5:59 to play, the Hornets had a chance to tie.
But Brooklyn saw they didn’t cash in on it. The Nets forced a miss, and Durant stemmed the tide with a baseline jumper.
Royce O’Neale took an offensive foul from JT Thor on one end, and Durant found Kyrie Irving for a jumper on the other to put the Nets up 113-107.
Charlotte kept pulling within one, at 113-112 and again at 115-114 on Jalen McDaniels’ driving bank shot. And Durant kept bailing Brooklyn out.
With the score 118-116, Irving hit a pair at the line. Mason Plumlee went to the stripe with a chance to halve the lead, but the .574 shooter missed both with 34.2 seconds remaining. Irving essentially iced it on a nine-foot floater with 13.7 seconds left in regulation.
There would be no overtime.
Kelly Oubre led Charlotte with 30.
Brooklyn had used a 12-2 run — capped by a Curry 3-pointer — to turn a one-point lead into a 36-25 edge with a minute left in the first quarter.
It ballooned to 73-50 when Durant found Joe Harris for another 3-pointer with 1:19 left in the first half. But any designs on giving Durant ample rest in the second went out the window.
For Brooklyn, scaling back the burden on Durant wasn’t a priority. It was the priority.
“Yeah, it’s priority number one, in all honesty. … We had 2 ½ days in between before we played Charlotte. … Then we have Atlanta,” coach Jacque Vaughn said. “So that’s your thought process. Now you’ve got a back-to-back to deal with. Hopefully you get some injured guys that’ve been on the injured list back to help on the back-to- back.
“Then you take a little sigh of relief, and then the next two weeks after that we’re in pretty good shape. … So there is vision going ahead of hopefully getting some of those minutes down. It’s just stretches of the season where you’re trying to win that day’s game and you hope you get through by playing Kevin those amount of minutes with the long-term view of cutting those minutes.”