– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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DALLAS — All the Brooklyn Nets needed to do put a disappointing loss at home aside is to take their All-Star act to the road, there Brooklyn has continued to show their championship aspirations with one impressive road win after another.
James Harden led the Nets wit 24 points and 12 assists, Kevin Durant added 23, with Durant and Patty Mills hitting clutch three-pointers late as Brooklyn came from behind to defeat the Dallas Mavericks 102-99 at the American Airlines Center on Tuesday. Brooklyn outscored the Mavericks 27-13 in the fourth quarter to improve their league-best road record to 9-2.
“It’s a character win where you just want to make the right plays to get back in the game and you want to turn the momentum to your side,” said Durant, who also had seven rebounds and three assists. “I think we did that tonight.”
Brooklyn entered the fourth quarter down by 11 after, at one point, being down 71-54 in the third quarter before Durant heated up. The former University of Texas product made five of his six shots from the field in the final stanza, and threes by both Durant and Mills on consecutive possessions cut a nine-point deficit down to three early in the fourth quarter.
With the Nets clinging to a 99-98 lead with 90 seconds remaining, Harden drove past Luka Doncic for a layup to extend the lead to three. After a pair of Kristaps Porzingis free throws, Durant then hit a turnaround jumper to provide the game’s final points with 61 seconds remaining.
“We’ve been in this league long enough to know it’s winning time. It’s go time,” Harden said. “Throughout the course of the game, I feel like we got good shots. We just missed them. We just kept sticking with it and kept sticking with it. You’ve got to just keep shooting, especially if that’s what you do.”
Dallas’ shots did not fall in all night, as the Mavericks went a ghastly 9-for-46 from three-point range. Doncic led the Mavericks with 28 points, but was just 3-for-11 from beyond the arc. The Mavericks’ final possession summed up their night, as Doncic missed a potential game-tying three-pointer and, after an offensive rebound, Tim Hardaway Jr. missed a wide open look at the buzzer that would have tied the game. Hardaway missed all seven threes he attempted as the Mavericks dropped their fifth consecutive game at home.
“We had a lot of open looks there in the fourth quarter that just didn’t go down,” Mavericks head coach (and former Nets player) Jason Kidd said. “And then Timmy has a wide-open look. You couldn’t ask for a better look to tie up the game.”
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Monday evening’s game, with all photos taken by Dallas-area photographer Ross James. After clicking on the first photo to enlarge the picture, make sure to press the left and right arrow buttons to scroll through the rest of the pictures. There are 27 pictures in total.
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