For the Nets these days, there’s no place like home.
After dropping back-to-back overtime games on the road earlier this week, the Nets returned to Brooklyn on Friday night and did what they have been doing inside Barclays Center for two months now: winning basketball games.
Thanks to 17 first-quarter points from Paul Pierce, the Nets jumped on top early, never trailed and pulled away to an easy 108-97 victory over the Cavaliers in front of a sellout crowd of 17,732, giving them their 12th straight win at home.
“We’re playing well at home,” said Deron Williams, who finished with 13 points and five assists, and also threw down his second dunk of the season on a breakaway in the third quarter. “We talk about that every time we win at home, so hopefully we can keep [the streak] going.
“It definitely feels like we have a home-court advantage this year.”
The Nets (38-33) haven’t lost at home since Oklahoma City beat them on Jan. 31 — two days before the Seahawks won Super Bowl XLVIII. And, by winning again, they were able to remain 2¹/₂ games back of the Raptors for first place in the Atlantic Division with 11 games to play, and moved to within 1¹/₂ games of the Bulls for fourth place.
Because the Nets lose the tie-breakers to either team, it’s looking more and more likely like the Nets will be facing the Bulls in the opening round of the playoffs for a second year in a row, after Chicago sent them home in Game 7 in Brooklyn last May.
“We really don’t control our own destiny,” said Pierce, who led the Nets with 22 points. “We’ve got to hope things go our way, but it’s important for us to try to win each and every game so we’re playing well going into the playoffs.”
The Nets, who were missing Kevin Garnett for a 15th straight game, got a big boost from his old friend early on, as Pierce knocked down all four of his shots in the first quarter — each coming from behind the 3-point arc — to go along with a perfect 5-for-5 from the foul line to help Brooklyn jump out to a 25-14 lead.
“It feels good,” Pierce said. “The ball is moving, it’s finding the open man. Once you knock the first couple down, you feel like you’re on fire.
“As a scorer, [and] I’ve been a scorer all my life, all you got to do is see one go in. [Then] you feel like all of them are going to go in. … Different guys are going to be the benefactor of that on different nights, and I was tonight.”
Cleveland then closed the first quarter with a 14-5 run to tie the game at 29, but the Nets opened the second with a 12-0 run — all 12 points coming from bench players — to take the lead for good.
The Nets benefited from strong bench production all night long, outscoring Cleveland 48-18 in bench points while having three players finish in double figures (Alan Anderson with 13 and both Andray Blatche and Marcus Thornton with 10), while Mirza Teletovic added nine points and 10 rebounds.
“I think everybody knows that their time is coming, and that the bench is very important,” Teletovic said. “We know that the starting five, on their level, they’re in shape and everybody’s playing good, so then we have to be on the same level that they are and just keep going the same.”
Cleveland managed to hang around thanks to forcing the Nets into 17 turnovers the Cavaliers converted into 20 points, and because of a 14-4 advantage in second-chance points. But the Nets easily countered that by going 14-for-29 (48 percent) from 3-point range and shooting nearly 55 percent from the field overall.
“It starts with penetration, with the ball touching the paint,” Kidd said. “As long as the ball is touching the paint and we’re working inside-out, I don’t mind the 3s. … Everybody is touching the ball, so everybody is getting good looks.”