SACRAMENTO – Anytime you have three road games in four nights in the NBA, it’s vital to win in the first game. It becomes even more important when that first game is against the Sacramento Kings, one of the NBA’s worst teams.
That was why Nets coach Avery Johnson stressed before last night’s game that the Nets couldn’t afford to overlook the Kings ahead of back-to-back games against the Lakers Tuesday and Warriors Wednesday.
“The main thing for us is that it’s a different opponent every night,” Johnson said. “We can’t change our approach, no matter what their record is. We’re not that good to overlook anybody.
“Tonight is one opponent, it will be another opponent the next game and the next game, but it doesn’t change our defensive principles, it doesn’t change what we’re trying to do offensively.”
While the Nets may not have overlooked the Kings, but they had their hands full all night, before eventually emerging with a hard-fought 99-90 victory, pushing their winning streak to five straight.
The Nets (6-2) may have tried not to change anything, but that didn’t keep them from finding themselves in a struggle with the Kings (2-8), who held a players-only meeting on Friday after seeing their losing streak stretch to four after a loss to Atlanta.
The Kings were able to hang around thanks to edges on the glass, outrebounding the Nets 42-33, and by outscoring them 52-40 on points in the paint. The Nets also had to work around shooting woes for their Big Three of Deron Williams, Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez, who combined to go 10-for-36 from the field.
As they often have this season, the Nets got off to a slow start, despite welcoming Gerald Wallace back to the lineup after the starting small forward missed the previous six games with a sprained left ankle. The Nets struggled from the field early, falling behind 16-8 with four minutes to go in the first on a runner by Kings point guard Aaron Brooks.
But the Nets finished the quarter with a 13-5 run, and then surged ahead in the second quarter thanks to getting a huge lift off the bench from Andray Blatche.
Blatche terrorized Sacramento’s second unit, repeatedly finding ways to score around the basket before stepping out and hitting two long jumpers to finish the first half 9-for-9 with 18 points.
But after they ended the second quarter on a 13-2 run to take a 54-42 halftime lead, the Nets once again started out slow in the third quarter, giving up a pair of quick baskets to the Kings and forcing Avery Johnson to almost immediately burn a timeout.
That only temporarily stopped the bleeding, as the Kings proceeded to outscore the Nets 23-13 over the first several minutes of the third, coming as close as 67-65 with 2:10 left in the quarter after a pair of baskets from center DeMarcus Cousins. The Nets, however, were able to get some much needed breathing room down the stretch in the third, scoring the final seven points of the quarter to take a 74-65 lead after three.
Once again, the Kings immediately sliced into the lead to start the fourth thanks to a pair of 3-pointers from guard Marcus Thornton, and cut the lead to two when Thornton made one of two free throws with 9:20 remaining, before the Nets went on an 13-2 run to seal the win.
tbontemps@nypost.com