The Brooklyn Nets redeemed themselves after an ugly loss to the Golden State Warriors by taking down the Cleveland Cavaliers just 24 hours later. After leading by as many as 23, it looked like the Nets were going to run away with this one. Well, that was until the Cavs came out the half with other plans.
Cleveland outscored Brooklyn 32-19 in the third period, duplicating the Nets’ third quarter woes against the Warriors on Tuesday. With things getting tight, it was LaMarcus Aldridge (24 PTS, 7 REBS) who stepped up to score 24 of the team’s 28 points off the bench.
Aldridge had some company though to give Brooklyn that much needed energy to get out of this one with a win. James Harden (27 PTS, 10 REBS, 7 ASTS) flirted with a triple-double, Kevin Durant logged a team-high 37 minutes to drop 23 points and Patty Mills (21 PTS) shined in his second game as a starter.
The Nets ended the game with 29 assists and they barely reached their goal of keeping Cleveland under 100 points. Brooklyn came away with seven steals and three blocks in the contest which forced the Cavaliers to only score 99 points.
Here are the player grades from Wednesday’s win: