Kevin Durant was back in the starting lineup, but it was the bench that helped the Nets turn a huge backlog into an even bigger route of the Hornets.
The Nets overcame a shaky early defense and then rushed back to blow the Hornets out 130-115 before 1,773 at Barclays Center.
Joe Harris scored a team high of 26 points, while Durant had 25 points and 11 assists and Landry Shamet added 20 points. The Nets took advantage of Charlotte’s tendency to give up catch-and-shoot appearances, with 55.3 percent overall and being 21-for-41 from three-point range.
“We did them good by just moving them around and making an extra pass here or there from a good shot to a good shot,” Joe Harris said.
Shamet and the rest of the Nets bench outscored Charlotte’s reserves 49-15. They sparked a run that stretched over the first and second quarters to turn the game around, as well as another in the fourth quarter to put it away.
“The second unit was excellent just like their intensity,” Nets coach Steve Nash said. ‘And they did it in the second half as well. … So they just played really hard, they played together, they were active in both their activities. ‘
Shamet was a plus-25, while Nic Claxton, though pointless, had team highs of nine rebounds, two steals and a block to finish plus-24. Even Blake Griffin – who was held with Durant in Philadelphia on Wednesday – had 10 points, five boards and took a huge cost to finish plus-22.
Charlotte’s Miles Bridges had 33 points and Terry Rozier scored 27, but without LaMelo Ball, Gordon Hayward, Malik Monk and PJ Washington, it would not have been enough.
The Hornets struck out 12 of their first 15 shots, taking a 27-13 lead on a Bridges three-point lead with four to five in the first. But by the point of 4:59 in the second, they turned the text around.
The Nets held Charlotte to 5-for-23 shooting in an extended run of 32-14 and led 45-41 on a dunk by DeAndre Jordan. The big center started its second consecutive game, after the retirement of LaMarcus Aldridge.
‘I’m going to approach it like a job. I’m going to be a pro about it. “I supported my teammates and everyone, whether I play for 30 minutes or not,” said Jordan.
‘Selfish, individual, it’s obviously not ideal for me. But if you’re in a team, you need to be able to sacrifice the team and put it first, and I did the night-in, night-out. And I will continue to do so. Because we know what the bigger goal is and what the ultimate goal is, and it’s for us to reach the top. ”
That vertex is a ring.
“We know what our goal is,” said general manager Sean Marks. “We know what we are striving for. We know it was shot. ”
With the Nets still clinging to a slight 94-91 lead early in the fourth, Harris helped blow it open. His four-point game extended the lead to seven with 11:13 to play, and he got a friendly roll on three more to drop it to 101-92.
From there, the Hornets gave up the ghost. The Nets ran away and extended their lead to 118-99 with 5:35 left on a 3 by Kyrie Irving (12 points, six assists, four rebounds).
‘Obviously we want to win every game and play good basketball every time, but [the No. 1 seed] is not an emphasis for us. “We do not come in with the one seed that is circled on the whiteboard,” Durant said. “We want to stay healthy, we want to try defensively and offensively to find that groove … and get everyone back, and we’ll be fine.”