The Brooklyn Nets had their momentum towards the Eastern Conference play-in tournament stalled after losing to some of the worst teams in the NBA in their last three losses. However, after some renewed energy and effort, Brooklyn showed that they have some fight left in them despite some recent evidence to the contrary.
The Nets picked up a huge win on Sunday as they beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 120-101 in Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse thanks to some huge performances from Cam Thomas and Mikal Bridges. While Thomas came back from his six-game absence due to a right ankle/midfoot sprain with a vengeance with his second game of at least 29 points, Bridges has been struggling as of late.
What made Sunday’s win important for Brooklyn, outside of the usual importance of winning games, was the fact that the Nets played with a force that the team has rarely shown over the past couple of months. Even though the Cavaliers came into the game missing Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, and Max Strus, Cleveland was still favored in the betting markets by a significant margin, mostly because of how up-and-down Brooklyn has been lately.
After a first half in which the Nets lead just 52-51 heading into halftime, Brooklyn turned things up in the third quarter on the backs of Thomas and Bridges, who each had 11 points in the period. After that, the game was well in hand, and Thomas gave his take on what allowed the Nets to display that kind of dominance:
“It’s our energy and effort, communication. I’m pretty sure what everybody will probably say in the postgame, but you know, I was just talking up more, being more like just talking to the guys, getting them hyped up. Telling them what we need to do to get a win because it’s been a while and plus, we’re in a stage of the season where we have to get wins. So, everybody has to do something they’re not used to and for me, it’s just being communicative like talking to the guys, getting the guys hyped up. So, that really sparked us. So, got to keep it going. Orlando coming up (on Wednesday) so got to keep it going.”
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