It wasn’t easy. And it wasn’t over until Santi Aldama’s miss at the buzzer.
But the Nets’ 106-104 win over Memphis before a sellout crowd of 18,088 at Barclays Center was gritty. And it was on-brand.
Dennis Schroder smothered Grizzlies star Ja Morant on the final play, poking the ball loose and away to Aldama. And the Nets forced a last-second miss to even their record at 4-4, winning for the fourth time in their last six games.
A rebuilding team projected to have by far the worst record in the league — with a win total in the teens — is somehow third in the East.
“We don’t really care what people think, what they say. We believe in this group and everybody wants to make the playoffs,” said Schroder, who had 20 points, six assists, a huge insurance bucket with 32.1 seconds left and tough defense on Morant.
“It starts with the veterans. Of course, everybody’s encouraging the young guys to stay off social media, not to think we’re just going to win whatever games, what they say. But we just want to come out every single game, take every game and go out and compete, out-compete the other team and yeah, win some games.”
The Nets won this one after 11 ties and 17 lead changes — including six in a seesaw fourth quarter.
Cam Johnson had 20 points on 8 of 10 shooting — including several strong drives — to finish plus-16. Dorian Finney-Smith added eight of his 17 points in the fourth on 3 of 3 shooting. It was his clutch 3-pointer with 1:13 to play that broke a 101-all tie and put Brooklyn ahead for good.
Schroder attacked Zach Edey for a layup to give the Nets a 106-101 lead with a half-minute left, and smothered Morant in the waning seconds to make it stick.
“We’re competitors,” Finney-Smith shrugged. “Schroder, CJ, they’ve been a part of winning teams. CJ’s been to the finals. I think Schro may have been close to the finals. He’s been on winning teams.
“It’s just us in the locker room. We don’t care about other people’s expectations. We know what we expect from us. We’re going to compete. And if you want to play against us and you think it’s going to be easy, then you’re in for a rude awakening.”
The Nets have taken four of their five against the Grizzlies (4-4), including 119-106 in Memphis on Oct. 30.
And this latest one came shorthanded, playing without Ben Simmons, Noah Clowney or Day’Ron Sharpe. They were outscored 66-48 in the paint and had precious little rim protection, with Edey dominating inside for 25 points and 12 rebounds. And Morant had 25 points, nine assists and an acrobatic highlight-reel reverse that brought cheers from the crowd.
But Schroder helped slow him to just 1 of 6 in that pivotal fourth quarter. The Nets held Memphis to just 8 of 30 from deep.
With the score knotted at 101-all, Finney-Smith untied it on a 3-pointer off a feed from Cam Thomas, who shot just 6 of 17 but handed out six assists. Then after Schroder rebounded a Morant miss, he raced up court and drove straight into Edey’s chest for a layup with 32.1 seconds left.
Jaren Jackson Jr. hit a 3-pointer just three seconds later. And after the Nets ended up with a shot clock violation on the other end with just 4.2 seconds left in regulation, they needed a last-ditch defensive stand to keep it from overtime.
“We did have some extremely low [outside] expectations. But everybody here, including the coaches, we all have a chip on our shoulder,” said Nic Claxton, who had 10 points, eight boards, two steals and a block in his first start of the season.
“So we’re just taking it day by day. It’s a long season, it’s a good start. We can always be better, but it’s a good start. So we’ve just got to keep stacking these games.”
