Nets

Yuta Watanabe, Edmond Sumner and Markieff Morris will have their contracts guaranteed by the Nets for the rest of the season, tweets Michael Scotto of ...

Kyrie Irving helped lift the Nets despite a cold shooting night, draining a dagger 3 to put away the Pelicans on Friday night.

Kevin Durant had 33 points and 10 rebounds and the Brooklyn Nets outlasted the short-handed New Orleans Pelicans 108-102 on Friday night.

... With Three Kings Day marking the start of the Carnival season that runs through Mardi Gras day, the Pelicans debuted their “city edition” uniforms featuring the purple, green and gold colors that have been associated with Mardi Gras festivities in New Orleans since the 1870s. The Pelicans led for much of the game but struggled to hit shots in the second half, finishing at 39.8 % shooting (35 of 88). Nets: Have won four straight in New Orleans. ... Have won six straight against Western Conference teams. The game remained tight from there into the final minutes. Alvarado's 3 and driving layup sparked an 11-0 run that gave the Pelicans a 43-28 lead in the second quarter, and New Orleans led 64-53 at halftime.

Brooklyn rode a big second-half advantage to a 108-102 comeback win over New Orleans.

Friday was the first time the Pelicans shot under 40 percent this season and still had a chance to win in clutch time. There are countless options on the team’s roster overall, but Twitter only provides you with four under any poll question, so Friday’s query was: Which of New Orleans’ current starters (not including McCollum) is most important for the Pelicans to maintain their lofty status in the top three of the West standings? The hosts only had 17 points in the fourth quarter. In addition to the play of Marshall (career-high 23 points) and Alvarado, guard CJ McCollum tallied his second straight game of exactly 28 points. Brooklyn did a nice job of crowding the paint and making it difficult for the Pelicans to score around the hoop, including throwing multiple bodies at Jonas Valanciunas. Kyrie Irving dropped in a pair of free throws with 12 seconds left, giving Brooklyn a six-point lead and forcing New Orleans to use its final timeout.

Hace menos de dos meses, las cosas no pintaban bien Brooklyn. Desde entonces, los Nets han sido el equipo más en forma de la NBA.

La profundidad de los Nets se ha convertido en una fortaleza ya que el equipo está sacando el máximo provecho de cada uno en su rotación. Desde que regresó el 20 de noviembre, Irving tiene un promedio de 25,9 puntos con un 51,5%, un 40,8% desde la larga distancia y un 90,1% en tiros libres. Un nivel mutuo de confianza entre entrenadores y jugadores es una pieza importantísima a la hora de luchar por un campeonato. De hecho, los Nets registraron un balance de 17-3 cuando volvió la estrella. Y todo apunta a que esta versión de los Nets ha venido para quedarse. Durante la racha de victorias de Brooklyn. De hecho, contra los Mavs dejó una gran actuación en ese costado del campo ante Luka Doncic. Dado lo prolífico que ha sido KD, su acompañante es la mejor segunda gran opción posible. Después de recibir 153 puntos en la derrota ante los Kings el 15 de noviembre, los neoyorquinos tenían un balance de 6-9 y buscaban desesperadamente respuestas para cambiar la temporada antes de que fuera demasiado tarde. Cuando uno mira a Milwaukee y Boston, cada equipo tiene su respectivo candidato al MVP con Giannis Antetokounpo y Jayson Tatum. Y la estrella ha sido verdaderamente impresionante. Hace menos de dos meses, las cosas no pintaban muy bien en los Brooklyn Nets.

Kevin Durant scored 33 points and Kyrie Irving turned it on late in the game as the Brooklyn Nets won 108-102 at the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving combined to miss 32 shots and didn't let it bother them one bit. Durant had 33 points and 10 rebounds, ...

... With Three Kings Day marking the start of the Carnival season that runs through Mardi Gras day, the Pelicans debuted their “City Edition” uniforms featuring the purple, green and gold colors that have been associated with Mardi Gras festivities in New Orleans since the 1870s. We didn’t do enough to win the game, but we can continue to build.” “We had multiple guys guarding Kyrie, guarding Kevin, trying to get out to their shooters. “Those are the type of games you want to play to learn your team and figure out your team even more, because you’re a totally different team when your shots aren’t going in. “You’ve still got to go out there and lock in on the defensive side of the ball,” Durant continued. Nets: Have won four straight in New Orleans. The game remained tight from there into the final minutes. “Obviously we’re down a few players,” Alvarado said. ... Kyrie hit a big 3 and made it a little bit difficult, but we’ve got to look back and learn.” Meanwhile, Nets center Nic Claxton protected the paint with five blocks. “That’s probably where I feel like we’re making incredible strides in games like this.” “I liked how we kept grinding regardless.

Durant had 33 points and 10 rebounds, Irving scored seven of his 19 points in the final 1:12 and the Brooklyn Nets outlasted the short-handed New Orleans.

… With Three Kings Day marking the start of the Carnival season that runs through Mardi Gras day, the Pelicans debuted their “City Edition” uniforms featuring the purple, green and gold colors that have been associated with Mardi Gras festivities in New Orleans since the 1870s. We didn’t do enough to win the game, but we can continue to build.” “Those are the type of games you want to play to learn your team and figure out your team even more, because you’re a totally different team when your shots aren’t going in. “You’ve still got to go out there and lock in on the defensive side of the ball,” Durant continued. “We had multiple guys guarding Kyrie, guarding Kevin, trying to get out to their shooters. “That’s probably where I feel like we’re making incredible strides in games like this.”

Brooklyn's stars had atypically poor showings. Kevin Durant had a quiet 33 points on just 9-of-26 from the field, and Kyrie Irving was just as poor with just 19 ...

And so he saves us on a lot of positions where it’s the amount of blocks he has at the rim for us, whether it’s his ability to kind of show a crowd in transition and still get to his man, or whether it’s 14 seconds left and he goes offensive rebounding and gets offensive rebounds,” said Vaughn. The Nets head off to Miami to play the Heat on Sunday at 6:00 p.m. That alone made up for the differences in rebounding (51-43, New Orleans) and points in the paint (42-36, also New Orleans). Claxton is now NBA leader in blocks per game, block percentage (7.9), shooting percentage (73.7), effective shooting percentage (73.7) Clax has really come into his own, especially as of late, and affected the game in a positive way against New Orleans with his nonstop hustle. The way we climbed into the basketball, we were definitely more physical in the second half, dictated more possessions, and at the end of the day, we wanted to win and we did things necessary to do so.” With the win, the Nets have climbed back into the 2-seed in the Eastern Conference as the [Milwaukee Bucks](https://www.brewhoop.com) lost to the 11-29 [Charlotte Hornets](https://www.atthehive.com). Fortunately, Irving hit the two biggest shots of the game—a layup off a broken play and a deep 3-pointer—to build a nice five-point cushion to get his Nets across the finish line. FINALLY, Kyrie got it going with a layup off a broken possession and a deep three-pointer to give Brooklyn a 5-point cushion. The Pelicans started the second quarter on fire once again, immediately going on a 15-1 run. Kevin Durant began the game just 2-for-8 from the field, and the Pels made six of their first eight threes. “Being challenged by other teams on the road and also at home shows we’re growing in some small areas where our communication is at an all-time high,” said Kyrie Irving after the game.