SAN FRANCISCO – Already shorthanded, the Nets lost their hottest hands. But they refused to lose the game.
Despite Cam Johnson and Cam Thomas both watching the comeback from the bench, Brooklyn stormed back for a 128-120 victory at Golden State on Monday before a sellout crowd of 18,064 at Chase Center.
“If you look at the second half, down 18, ended up winning the third and ended up winning the fourth,” said Fernandez. “So it was a complete team effort, shorthanded. And these are amazing games.”
With Johnson spraining his ankle in the first half and Thomas being pulled in the third quarter, the decimated Nets trailed by 18 points.
Decimated, but not defeated.
Dennis Schroder led a 27-6 run that spanned the third and fourth quarters to seize a lead that Brooklyn never gave up.
“Yeah, they’re a hell of a team. But our character to come out here and compete on the highest level and get a win on their home court is pretty special,” said Schroder, who had 17 of his game-high 31 points in the fourth quarter. “Whatever it takes to win a basketball game.”
Schröder accounted for 65.9 percent of Brooklyn’s offense in the final quarter – 17 points, four assists for 10 points created.
With the Nets outscoring Golden State 41-28 in the fourth, he nearly matched the Warriors by himself.
“Yeah, he took control of the game and took control of the lead. Put everybody in the right place on both ends of the floor. And that’s the kind of leadership, it’s like having a coach on the floor,” said Jordi Fernandez. “When those things happen, I just let him do his thing…His performance overall in that second half, true leader.”
Nic Claxton, Dorian Finney-Smith, Ben Simmons and Noah Clowney were already sidelined.
The injury situation was so dire that the 6-foot-9, 205 pound Ziaire Williams had to play center, and responded with 19 points and ten boards for his second career double double.
“Shout out to the guys, we lost two more (in Johnson and Thomas) but our guys stepped up, made big-time shots,” said Williams. “(Trendon Watford) made big-time shots, and yeah it was a team effort. It was super fun out there, so like I said just glad we thugged it out and fought till the end. We deserved this win.”
Johnson – averaging 27.3 over his last four on .579 from deep – sprained his right ankle coming down on Draymond Green’s foot in the first quarter, and didn’t play the second half.
But second-year wing Jalen Wilson stepped up with a season-high 18 points in his absence.
Brooklyn trailed 86-68 with 7:13 left in the third quarter on a layup by Trayce Jackson-Davis.
Fernandez called a timeout to stem the tide, and ended up turning it altogether.
Thomas, who’d been dealing with back issues, had 23 points but got pulled one possession later down 16.
“I ended up taking him out because he took a foul, he was tired,” said Fernandez. “I didn’t feel it was right. And I just wanted to protect him from himself.”
But the Nets mounted an extended 27-6 run over the next nine minutes.
Schroder – who had missed Sunday’s win and been questionable with a sore right ankle – came alive to lead the blitz.
He knotted it at 92-all on a 3-pointer off a Tyrese Martin feed with 11:10 to play. And he hit a 27-footer off a Williams pass to cap the run and give the Nets a 95-92 edge with 9:43 to play.
They spent the rest of the evening holding off Golden State’s attempts to seize it.
“I think the league knows when they play against us, it’s not going to be sweet,” said Schroder. “So at the end of the day, we’re going to compete. It don’t matter who’s on the floor. We respect everybody, but when we get between those lines, we want to compete on the highest level…That’s how we are going to win games.”
