GOING UP: Deron Williams goes up for a layup against P.J. Tucker during the Nets’ 102-100 victory over the Suns. (Getty Images)
PHOENIX — The Nets were expected to come away with a win over the hapless Suns last night.
How they did it, however, was a bit unexpected.
After easing to a double-digit halftime lead, one they stretched to as many as 16 points early in the third quarter, the Nets needed a combined 20 points from guards C.J. Watson and Deron Williams in the fourth quarter to survive a furious second-half rally by the Suns and hang on for a 102-100 win in front of 14,800 at U.S. Airways Center.
“They made a heck of a run,” Nets interim coach P.J. Carlesimo said, “and we made some plays down the stretch so we could sneak out with a win.”
Rather than the Nets (41-29) making some plays, it was more the Suns (23-48) failing to take advantage of several golden opportunities to tie the score in the game’s final moments.
The Suns went 1-for-5 from the field in the game’s final minute while trailing by either two or three points the entire time. They were able to continually grab offensive rebounds and keep possessions alive.
That was something that the Suns were able to do all night, as they finished the game with an absurd 25 offensive boards, and out-rebounded the Nets 48-44.
“They were shooting 3s and [Suns guard Goran Dragic] was penetrating and kicking out,” said Kris Humphries, who finished with 17 points and eight rebounds off the bench. “There’s no real way to predict what [the rebounds] are going to do. They come off in all sorts of ways.”
But after Suns guard Wesley Johnson caught fire and scored 17 points in the third quarter — including going 5-for-6 from behind the 3-point arc — to lead the Suns on a 33-16 run that gave them a 76-75 lead heading into the fourth, Phoenix wasn’t able to make a play in the game’s final moments to push it to overtime.
Dragic — who finished with a stellar line of 31 points, nine rebounds and 12 assists — made the first of two free throws to pull Phoenix to within two with three seconds remaining, but he intentionally missed the second.
The rebound then fell right to Phoenix’s Hamed Haddadi, and the 7-foot-2 center had a clear look at the rim. But his potential game-tying layup clanged off the backboard, Reggie Evans secured the rebound and the Nets escaped with the win.
“Anytime something like happens … the ball’s up in the air, and then they’ve got Haddadi down there who catches it and I’m just sitting there looking at him,” said Deron Williams with a smile after finishing with 20 points and 11 assists while shooting 8-for-15 from the field and committing just one turnover. “But we definitely escaped with one.”
It was a win the Nets earned without the benefit of having one of their top weapons, Joe Johnson. The shooting guard sat out after suffering a right quad contusion in the second quarter of Saturday’s loss in Los Angeles when he banged into Clippers forward Blake Griffin.
“It tightened up, and it’s swollen, too,” Johnson said, adding that he hoped to be ready for the next game of the trip, Wednesday night in Portland, but wasn’t sure he would be. “There’s no need for me to get out there and try to play through this. I know my teammates can go out and handle business, so I’m just gonna try to get this thing right.”
In the meantime, the Nets managed to win without him, claiming their seventh victory in their last 10 games and their third in four games to open their eight-game, 17-day Circus Trip.
“It’s a good start,” Williams said. “This wasn’t the way we wanted to win it, but it’s a win nonetheless and we’re 3-1, which is pretty good so far for this road trip. If you’d have told us that before we started, we’d definitely have been happy with it.”