The Brooklyn Nets took the Sacramento Kings to school on Friday night.
The lesson: how to shoot three-pointers.
The Nets shot 64% from deep, parlaying a season-high 18 three-pointers into a 128-119 win at Barclays Center.
PA Announcer Dave Diamante was calling for threes all night. There were “Booyahs!” for Bojan Bogdanovic, who hit a career-high seven three’s (7-of-9) and there were plenty of emphatic “Son!”s for Joe Johnson, who hit 5-of-7 from deep.
“Joe and Bogie were incredible from three,” Interim Head Coach Tony Brown said. “That was the big reason we won the game.”
The coach credited effective ball movement for creating so many open looks. Johnson was a key part in both and the heartbeat for the Nets’ offense, scoring a season-high and game-high 27 points with a team-high 11 assists.
“It felt great,” Johnson said. “It feels great to get a win to see everything click on all cylinders. Offensively the ball moved great, everyone was pretty much involved and it led to a great win.”
Johnson, who had 20 points on Wednesday, picked up right where he left off, knocking down three, threes in the first quarter, part of a 13-point effort in the first period. Bogdanovic also went 3-of-3 from deep in the first quarter, giving the Nets six three-pointers in the first quarter, the most of any quarter this season.
“He was on,” Brook Lopez (26 points, 12 rebounds) said of Johnson. “It’s what we’ve come to expect from him. It was just automatic.”
The Nets took a 33-25 lead into the second quarter and turned it into a 13-point lead early, but the lead eroded, as the Kings chipped away. With the momentum swinging in Sacramento’s favor, the Nets were in danger of trailing at the half.
Enter, Joe Johnson.
Johnson scored all seven of his second-quarter points in the final 3:07, first trying the score 53-53, later taking the lead back with his fourth three-pointer of the night and finishing the quarter with a 10-footer. The Nets lead 65-61 at the break.
“Johnson is unbelievable at his age to still be able to play like this,” Brown said. “He had 11 assists and his reads, his vision on what was available is just as good as anybody in the league. Just an outstanding game by him.”
It didn’t stop there. After a pair of 30+ point quarters, the Nets dropped 38 points in the third quarter. Donald Sloan (12 points in the quarter), Brook Lopez (11) and Thaddeus Young (10) each hit double-digits. The coup d’etat of the Kings was more or less complete when Sloan’s third three-pointer of the quarter put the Nets over the century mark. They finished the third quarter up 103-85, the first time since 2000 they’d recorded 100 points in three quarters.
The Kings, an offensively-gifted team in their own right, scored 34 in the fourth quarter, but the Nets kept their distance, with Bogdanovic practicing his three-pointers, hitting 4-of-4 in the final frame.
“I think the thing I’m most proud about tonight was how we closed it out,” Lopez said. “We stayed focused. They had lots of opportunities to start making runs or closing the gap. They hit some big shots, but we stuck with it and definitely we closed the game and need to do it more often.”
While the three-point shooting stole the show Friday, the Nets played a sound game in the post, outrebounding the Kings 46-31 and winning second-chance points 18-4. Lopez won the battle of the bigs against DeMarcus Cousins, outscoring him 26-24 and grabbing seven offensive boards to Cousins’ zero.
Darren Collison had a team-high 25 points for the Kings, while Rajon Rondo had 15 points and 15 assists. Young finished with 14 points and 14 boards, while Chris McCullough was on the Nets’ active roster for the first time this season, but did not see the floor.
The Nets head to Philadelphia for a Saturday night date with the 76ers. Tipoff is at 7:30 p.m.
