After their win streak was horribly snapped in Chicago, the Brooklyn Nets made sure to establish a new one.
Determined to deliver a bounce back from their loss against the Bulls, the Nets entered New Orleans territory and walloped the Pelicans in an impressive 108-102 win on Friday.
It was a must-see for the majority on how Brooklyn will make a response after being spoiled by their 12-game win skid, and their performance against New Orleans can only be convincingly strong for head coach Jacque Vaughn, who admitted that he’s been looking forward to the marquee matchup to take place.
“Really been thinking about it all day. I’m just excited to see how our team plays, how we start the game and our attention to detail throughout the course of the game,” Vaughn said, via New York Post’s Brian Lewis. “I said it after the last game, we responded well to wins and we learned how to win in different ways. Can we respond after not getting a win.”
The rising Pelicans managed to demonstrate a fight. Even in the absence of their one-two-punch stars in Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram, the club carved a scare for the Nets in the first half, as they built an early momentum with a 15-point edge.
But the Pels then proceeded to shoot at the 39.8 percent mark in the second half – a recipe for them to come up short against the Nets that went beaming down the stretch.
Despite an inefficient 9-for-26 performance, Kevin Durant still led the way for Brooklyn as he poured 33 markers and grabbed 10 boards. Meanwhile, Kyrie Irving came up big in crunch time, registering seven of his 19 points in the final 1:12 of the regulation to punch the Nets’ 17th win out of their last 19 games.
Now assuming a much bigger responsibility, CJ McCollum drained 28 points and received plenty of support from the 23 points of Naji Marshall for the Pelicans.
The Nets will land in South Beach to face the Heat on Sunday to cap off their three-game road trip.
