Moments after the Brooklyn Nets finished their first win in more than three weeks, cheering from the locker room was audible, and talk about a different environment highlighted the postgame comments.
After ending their 11-game losing streak, the Nets will seek their first winning streak in nearly a month Wednesday night when they visit the New York Knicks.
It will be Brooklyn’s third game since the team granted James Harden’s desire to be traded by sending him to Philadelphia. The return package included Ben Simmons, Seth Curry and Andre Drummond, with the latter two playing key roles in the Nets’ first win since Jan. 21.
Brooklyn ended the skid by never trailing in a 109-85 win over the Sacramento Kings that marked the Nets’ fewest points allowed and lowest opponents’ shooting percentage (34.4 percent) of the season.
“The locker room, it’s just a great vibe in there right now,” Brooklyn’s Bruce Brown said. “I don’t know what it is. Everything just shifted after the trade deadline. Everybody likes everybody. It’s just great.”
Curry led the Nets with 23 points, including 12 in the third quarter, while Drummond played effective defense on Domantas Sabonis and contributed 11 points and nine rebounds. Brown had a season-high 19 points, and LaMarcus Aldridge finished with 19 points and eight rebounds as the Nets shot 51.2 percent — their best field-goal percentage since 52.8 in a 119-118 win at Washington on Jan. 19.
The Knicks, meanwhile, are starting to run out of time in their quest for a play-in berth as they entered Tuesday’s action 5 1/2 games behind eighth-place Brooklyn and two games behind 10th-place Atlanta in the Eastern Conference. New York is 3-12 in its past 15 since winning three straight Jan. 10-15.
New York’s rough stretch includes seven double-digit losses, and four of the past five defeats occurred in games when the Knicks led by double digits at some point.
After blowing a 23-point lead in Saturday’s 112-103 loss in Portland, the Knicks squandered an 11-point lead in the third quarter and were handed a 127-123 overtime loss Monday to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
New York’s latest losses are occurring as Julius Randle is in the midst of his best stretch of the season. Randle posted a triple-double of 30 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists Monday, and he has tied a season high by getting at least 20 points in six straight games.
“We’re just letting a lot of them go, honestly,” Randle said. “That’s probably, like five, four losses of our last five were probably very winnable games, and the story and narrative probably (would be) a lot different.”
Randle is averaging 27.7 points in his past seven contests with double-doubles in six of those games, including the past four. His past three performances are coming without RJ Barrett, who has been out with a sprained left ankle.
If Barrett sits again Wednesday, rookie Quentin Grimes likely will replace him in the starting frontcourt. Grimes scored 19 points Monday after getting 20 in Saturday’s loss.
The Nets are 9-3 in the past 12 meetings and began the season series with a 112-110 win in Brooklyn on Nov. 30.
–Field Level Media