The game, like the season, wasn’t goi🐬ng the way th🃏e Nets wanted. But they’ve shown some pride in closing both well.
They stormed to a 113-💟103 come-from-behind victory over Detroit, finally loo🐭king like the team they were supposed to be down the stretch.
Trailing by 15 with just over seven minutes to play, the Nets went on a blistering 29-4 run to flip the ꦛscript before a sellout crowd of 17,732 at Barclays Center — including team owner Joe Tsai, seated courtside.
The Nets scored the fi𓆉nal 19 unanswered points, forciꦇng nine straight misses and three turnovers down the stretch.
The Nets have won five of their past seven to 🐎improve to 31-47.
They’ve been eliminated from postseason contention and will clearly fall sh🐓ort of their goals.🤡
But with four more dates on the schedule, they can at least build some momentum going into the off🎃season — and hopefully next season.
Cam Thomas poured in a game-hig▨h 32 points, six rebounds and⛎ five assists.
“We star꧙ted playing our brand of basketball. [It was] us getting stops and playing fast,” Thomas said.
“It’s big. Just having something to build on for next year. Obviously, we [wanted to be playing] a [playoff] series against som🉐ebody. … We just have to finish strong. Keep developing the cult that we [were] preaching during training camp. But you said we are five [out of] seven. That’s good. Just finishing strong [and] seeing what we can build on for next year so we don’t have another season like this.”
Dennis Schroder added 24 poin൲ts and six assists, and 19-year-old rookie Noah Clowney had a second straight strong performance with 17 points and six boards off the bench.
Interim coach Kevin Ollie has stressed there is plenty to plaꦿy for.
“Yeah, they just kept hunting, they kept hunting, hunting, hunting. And we weren’t finding anything to eat the first three quarters, but they just kept going out there. And then we finally found a pace that we wanted on defense and offense,” Ollie said. “So it’s just hunting season, and we’re not f💟inished yet. We just want to keep hunting until the last seconds run out on the season.
“But I’m just so proud of the resilience. … That shows resilience, that shows fight, that shows they’re staying in it no matter 🎶what’s going on. And that’s championship culture, a championship foundation that we want to build.”
The Pistons 👍(13-65) are 🌺the worst squad in the entire NBA.
They’ve dropped 12 of their past 13,෴ includin🐓g getting blown out the night before in Memphis.
But the Nets looked like the tired team early on.
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They fell behind 44-25 with 7:ꦜ56 left in the first half on𓆉 a short hook shot by Chimezie Metu.
After Marcus Sasser rose up and drilled a 3-pointer ovಌer two Nets, Thomas got bodied by Jaden Ivey, knocked down en route to the Detroit stando♋ut’s short jumper.
The Nets trailed by 17 before mounting a rally.
A Jaylen Nowell 3-pointe�🌊�r left Brooklyn in a 99-84 hole with 7:49 left.
But the Nets stormed back with that 29-4 blitz.
꧑Clowney’s right corner 3-pointer pulled them🀅 within 103-99.
Then, after he blocked Troy Brown Jr., Nic Claxto𝔍n drew an offensive foul on James Wiseman to give the Nets thꩲe ball.
A Schroder go-ahead 3-pointer put the Nets up 104-103 wiꩲth 2:54 remaining,𒆙 and after Brooklyn forced a shot clock violation with a defensive stand, Schroder made a pair at the line.
Schroder’s 12-foot jumper padded it to 108-103.
The Pistons seemingly broke the blitz until Claxton got whistled for goaltending on a B🦩rown hook shot with 1:0🐼3 in regulation.
But after a review, the call got rever♛sed, and the Nets got credited with their seventh block of the second half.
Jalen Wilson🔥 added a 3-pointer for icing on the cake.
