NBA

Nets hoping homestand stokes momentum shift

Almost exactly a year ago, a dramatic and unexpected victory in Oklahoma City turned around the Nets’ season, as it ignited a seven-game winning streak and a stretch of 10 wins in 11 games on the way to securing the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Thursday, thanks to stellar play from Deron Williams and yet another buzzer-beater from Joe Johnson, the Nets left Oklahoma City with a stunning 95-93 triumph over the Thunder, giving them the potential to have the same kind of springboard for success in the new year.

With the Nets beginning the season with an 11-21 record, they could use all the momentum they can get.

“Hopefully we can build on it,” Paul Pierce said after scoring 18 points in Oklahoma City. “We can’t rest on it and be satisfied with it. It’s just one win. We still got a ways to go. But it’s something that we can definitely build on.”

After capping their road trip to Indiana, San Antonio and Oklahoma City with their stirring conquest of the Thunder, the Nets return home for a four-game homestand, beginning Saturday night against the Cavaliers, with a chance to finally build some momentum after a chaotic and injury-filled first two months of the season.

Although Brook Lopez — set to have surgery Saturday on his fractured fifth metatarsal in his right foot — won’t be back this season, the Nets now have the rest of their roster healthy, and are expected to get Andray Blatche back after their top reserve big man sat out the last four games for personal reasons.

That, combined with the first two games of the homestand against a Cleveland team missing star point guard Kyrie Irving and dealing with the ongoing fallout of Andrew Bynum trade speculation, and Atlanta coming to Brooklyn on Monday without star center Al Horford, the Nets have a chance to begin to claw their way out of the massive hole they have dug for themselves.

“We can only take one game at a time, and one practice,” coach Jason Kidd said. “We’ll see [Saturday] what we do. Now we have to turn the page and look at Cleveland. This is an opportunity for us to build on something, especially against a very talented team in Oklahoma City.”

Although there are a lot of new faces who weren’t around for the Nets’ run after that defeat of the Thunder last season, Johnson agreed the team can build the same kind of turnaround as a year ago.

“This is definitely the point where our season turned around last year, and it’s the same scenario,” Johnson said. “Who knows, man. We take it one game at a time.

“We talk about building as a team, taking it one game at a time, being confident, and now we’re moving onto the next game and we have to see if we can continue to play at a high level. That’s the main thing.”