FIGHT FOR IT! Reggie Evans, who finished with no points and 10 rebounds in 20 minutes of court time, fights for the ball with Orlando forward Hedo Turkoglu during the Nets’ 97-77 victory over the Magic last night at Barclays Center. (Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post)
FIGHT FOR IT! Reggie Evans, who finished with no points and 10 rebounds in 20 minutes of court time, fights for the ball with Orlando forward Hedo Turkoglu during the Nets’ 97-77 victory over the Magic last night at Barclays Center. (N.Y. Post: Charles Wenzelberg)
With games coming up against the Heat, Bulls and Lakers over the next week, the Nets simply couldn’t afford a loss against the hapless Magic last night.
And, thanks to Deron Williams, they didn’t.
Williams was terrific, finishing with 20 points on 8-for-12 shooting and nine assists to lead the Nets to a 97-77 victory over the Magic in front of a crowd of 16,480 inside Barclays Center.
“I thought he had an excellent game,” said Nets interim coach P.J. Carlesimo, who saw the Nets improve to 13-4 since he took over. He then added, with a smile, “If we could’ve made one more shot, he’d have the double-double, too.”
Early on, Williams led with his shooting. After going 7-for-7 in the first quarter in Saturday’s loss in Houston, Williams was 5-for-6 — including 3-for-4 from 3-point range — on his way to 13 points and helping the Nets (27-18) jump out to a 30-20 lead after one that ballooned to 16 by halftime.
But in the fourth, Williams did it with his passing. After the Magic had cut what was once an 18-point Nets’ lead to seven by the end of the third quarter, Williams single-handedly set up a 9-0 Nets run to open the quarter by hitting Keith Bogans for a pair of threes sandwiched around a nifty pass to MarShon Brooks on the break for a layup to push the lead to 79-63.
“[Bogans] had it going from three,” Williams said. “In that third quarter, we weren’t playing together as a team. It was more individuals out there doing their own thing.
“We’re not at our best when we’re doing that. We came out, moved the ball and got good, wide-open shots, which is the way we want to play.”
From there, Williams was able to sit for the rest of the night and rest as the Nets had put the game officially out of reach to complete a four-game season sweep of the Magic (14-30) and snap their two game-losing streak after getting blown out in Memphis and Houston over the weekend.
“We needed this win,” Williams said. “We needed to stop the bleeding after the two-game skid we just had and get back to playing some defense. We held them to 77 points today and 40 percent from the field. That’s a lot better than the last two games, no matter who the team is. We just had to get back to our principles.”
The Nets couldn’t have asked for a more appealing opponent to return home to after their back-to-back drubbings in Memphis and Houston over the weekend than the Magic, who have now lost 17 of their last 19 games. It also was the kind of opponent the Nets have regularly taken care of this season, as they improved to 17-0 against opponents who entered the game with sub-.500 records.
But things will only get tougher from here, as the Nets — who now have an eight-game home winning streak — will host the defending champion Heat tomorrow, the Bulls on Friday and the possibly resurgent Lakers next week to begin an imposing eight-game stretch before the All-Star break that includes five teams with winning records.
“I’m sure we’ll be ready for this challenge coming up,” said Joe Johnson, who finished with 13 points on 5-for-10 shooting. “I know we’re capable of winning on any given night. We’ve just got to bring that focus and effort for 48 minutes.”