Bridges 33 Points Paces Brooklyn
Photo: Special to the NY Beacon
By Shara Talia Taylor
The Brooklyn Nets returned home to end an impressive weekend of play with a 102-86 victory over the Charlotte Hornets Sunday night at the Barclays Center.
It was paramount for the Nets to defeat the Hornets, following their win over the Celtics Friday night after six straight losses prior to that game. Brooklyn kept up the momentum from their comeback victory in Boston and played well as a team, both offensively and defensively throughout the game, led in scoring by Mikal Bridges.
“Yeah, just a character test for us,” said Nets Head Coach Jacque Vaughn. “As easily a game where you come off a big win versus Boston, and you come home, Are you going to relax? Are you going to be detailed into joining responsibility and taking care of our jobs tonight? Give our guys credit. We were locked in from the beginning.”
Coach Vaughn stressed the importance of getting a good start during his pregame interview on Sunday. “Just overall building off the good things that we did verse Boston,” he said before the game. “Really trying to focus on each possession with this group and how that matters.”
The Nets did just that. Brooklyn was behind 64-55 at halftime against Boston on Friday and came back to win 115-105. They started Sunday’s game strong even without the help of starter Ben Simmons, who Vaughn said would not play due to inflammation found during his MRI. Brooklyn took off and was ahead 36-21 by the end of the first quarter. Mikal Bridges led Brooklyn with 19 points, the highest-scoring quarter of his career. Spencer Dinwiddie connected with him on a few of those shots. Dinwiddie led the Nets with five assists and added nine points and the team out-rebounded the Hornets 12-10 in the quarter. The Nets were ahead 70-41 at half time. Brooklyn had only one turnover in the first half of the game, the fewest in any half this season. The Hornets played more assertive in the third and fourth quarters. Charlotte outscored Brooklyn 21-16 in the third quarter and 24-16 in the fourth quarter, but the Nets push in the first half of the game made the difference.
Bridges had the game high of 33 total points and contributed two assists and eight total rebounds. He said he felt his team played well defensively and they should be levelheaded when they take on Houston Tuesday. “Just staying together the whole time,” he said. “Not getting too worried.” Dinwiddie added 24 total points and eight total rebounds and led the Nets with eight assists. His takeaways from the last two games was that by keeping a team from scoring under 100 points is the key as they approach Houston and future games.
“You can’t get down 30, especially not to a good team,” he said about Boston.
He added about Charlotte, “Holding them at 86 points that was more so what we should be proud of than the kind of historic come back.”
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