SAN ANTONIO — James Harden wasn’t simply good Friday evening. Higher but, he was bouncy.
And Kyrie Irving was clutch.
In the long run, that was greater than sufficient to steer the shorthanded Nets to a straightforward 117-102 win over the rebuilding Spurs. The Nets went forward within the third and took over within the fourth in entrance of 15,068 at AT&T Heart.
“James was electrical at occasions and good clearly. The stat line is unbelievable. And Kyrie is an murderer at occasions too, simply having the ability to create offense for himself,” coach Steve Nash stated after his Nets (29-16) climbed share factors forward of the Bulls atop the Japanese Convention. “However general I assumed all people performed a task and did their jobs.”
Harden had a dominant triple-double with 37 factors, 11 assists and 10 rebounds. After being a minus-26 in his prior two video games at Cleveland and Washington, he attacked the rim and even threw down a vicious dunk over Spurs middle Jakob Poeltl with 5:04 left within the third quarter.
“I felt like I’m in rookie once more. Nah, I simply I really feel good all recreation, and simply aggressive and taking regardless of the protection gave. I struggled final recreation and I needed to get again and play higher. So it feels actually good,” Harden stated of his dunk, which had the Nets erupting in celebration. “As a result of they don’t suppose I can dunk no extra. I don’t wish to carry it out. However I had a possibility. First half I used to be attending to the rim, I simply wasn’t ending for no matter motive.
“So you bought to go up there and end. Needed to get one.”
Irving scored 15 of his 24 factors within the fourth quarter, when the Nets poured in 38 factors on 60 p.c capturing — together with 57.1 p.c from 3-point vary.
LaMarcus Aldridge and Patty Mills made profitable returns to San Antonio, the place they performed for the Spurs. Aldridge posted 16 factors and 7 assists, whereas Mills added 9 factors.
After being mesmerized by Harden’s 12-point, four-assist third quarter, Irving — in simply his fifth recreation this season, and fourth alongside Harden — was prodded by his fellow star to do his factor within the fourth.
“You will get simply caught up by simply watching. He’s so nice at simply getting one-on-one and when he’s feeling it, he makes the sport a lot simpler for everybody else. So I used to be simply making an attempt to get out the best way,” Irving stated. “Then James kinda yelled at me — not a detrimental yell — however he yelled at me, ‘Ky! Get the effin ball!’ within the third quarter after he’d scored. I don’t know what number of he scored within the third quarter. So I form of took that non-public, and simply got here out … with an aggressive mindset and simply performed off the circulate of the offense.”
It was really the Nets’ protection that turned it, earlier than the offense lastly obtained rolling late.
Trailing 74-73 with simply over a minute and a half left within the third, the Nets ran off eight unanswered factors to get some form of management.
Bruce Brown got here off the bench with harassing protection on Derrick White and a pair of blocks in succession. The second got here with simply three seconds left within the third quarter, and he raced up-court and was rewarded with a thunderous fast-break dunk that beat the buzzer.
Irving’s bucket to open the fourth capped the run and pushed the result in seven. His dipsy-do layup, adopted by a pull-up 3-pointer, made it 104-90 with 4:37 left to play.
In the long run, Irving — who had simply 9 factors by means of the third quarter — put up 15 within the fourth. He shot 6-for-9 and was a plus-10 in a closing interval that served as a breakthrough.
“For positive,” Harden stated of the purpose guard. “For positive, it was a breakthrough. He’s able to doing that, man, at any second, at any level within the recreation. And that’s one of many causes we'd like him each single recreation: As a result of he’s in a position to do this, particularly with every little thing that’s occurring with our workforce.
“However he’s greater than able to doing issues like that each time he desires. I believe he simply tries to get us concerned a bit bit extra. However yeah, he’s a particular expertise.”
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