The Nets finally were able to snap out of their five-game losing streak Wednesday in Toronto, but only after spotting the hapless Raptors a double-digit first-half lead before finally pulling ahead in the second half and finishing the game with a 94-88 victory.
Here are some of my thoughts on the game:
— I said before the game that it didn’t matter how the Nets looked, as long as they won the game. And, for as ugly as that game was, I still believe that to be the case.
Clearly the Nets were impacted by a draining game in a variety of ways the night before in Brooklyn against the Knicks, something Avery Johnson referred to after the game (though, to be fair, said he wasn’t concerned about beforehand when I asked him about it).
But they also clearly took the Raptors lightly, as Toronto entered the game down several players, only dressing nine players and playing eight. They came out sluggish, and it looked for much of the game like the Nets might somehow blow this one.
In the end, though, they didn’t. By hook or by crook, the Nets needed to leave Toronto with a win, as Deron Williams told me after the game, and they did. That’s all that matters.
— I asked Johnson before the game about the fact that the Nets had been shooting several more 3-pointers a game – and shooting them poorly – since Brook Lopez had been out of the lineup. His response was basically to say, “We have to score somehow without him.”
In the first half, it looked like I would be right, after the Nets shot 1-for-8 from 3-point range, and looked well on their way to another discouraging performance from deep. But then Joe Johnson and C.J. Watson happened, and suddenly the Nets went 9-for-11 from 3-point range in the second half (with Johnson and Watson each going 4-for-4), went on a 40-15 run and put the game away.
I still think the Nets have too many players that aren’t great 3-point shooters who are content to sit behind the arc and throw up shots. But when they hit them, like they did in the second half, they’re a very difficult team to beat.
— Joe Johnson has earned plenty of criticism for his play this season among Nets fans, and he certainly has deserved his fair share of it. But there’s also no arguing that Johnson has come up huge in some spots for them, too, as he did in the second half in Toronto.
Johnson’s 19 points and sweet shooting from behind the 3-point arc finally allowed the Nets to get past the Raptors and get some breathing room in the third quarter, something that the Nets desperately needed to happen.
If they had somehow blown that game, it would have turned into a full-blown crisis heading back to Brooklyn for Friday’s game against the Pistons, a team suddenly playing .500 ball after starting out the season with several losses in a row, followed by a game in Chicago Saturday and then several games in a row versus teams with winning records.
So it may not show up in a box score, but it was no small moment for Johnson to step up and deliver as he did in the second half of a December game in Toronto.
— The Nets had all kinds of trouble handling the young, athletic frontline of the Raptors, as Ed Davis (24 points, 10 rebounds on 11-for-13 from the floor) and Jonas Valanciunas (15 points, four rebounds on a perfect 6-for-6) ran roughshod in the paint.
When asked about it after the game, Avery Johnson blamed his pick-and-roll coverages, which was quite a bit of the case. Most of Valanciunas’ points came on rolls to the rim and easy dunk putbacks. Both of those also won’t be an issue when Brook Lopez returns, which could be as soon as Friday in Brooklyn against the Pistons.
— One thing to keep in mind, as well, is the Nets were without two rotation players against the Raptors in Lopez and Jerry Stackhouse, who Johnson has continued to sit out one half of back-to-backs in order to keep him fresh (along those lines: don’t expect to see Stackhouse Friday against the Pistons, barring a change in the philosophy).
There have been flashes of good play from MarShon Brooks, as well as from several of the other possible options off the bench, but losing Stackhouse and his calming influence on the court (similar to the one Jason Kidd has had on the Knicks) hurts.
— Speaking of the bench, the last two games have been a welcome turnaround for C.J. Watson, who had been shooting less than 33 percent from the field over an 11-game stretch before going a combined 7-for-12 in his last two games. All four of his makes came in the second half Wednesday night, and all came from behind the 3-point line.
Several of them also came while playing alongside Deron Williams, as the two-point guard combination arguably had its best showing of the season. It’s a combination the Nets have hoped to use, but haven’t been able to get going. After a showing like this, we’ll have to look and see if it reappears again against the Pistons.
tbontemps@nypost.com