PHOENIX — When Joe Johnson’s runner dropped through the net as the buzzer sounded in overtime to give the Nets a 100-98 victory over the Suns, he had just one thing on his mind.
“I couldn’t even celebrate, I was so tired,” Johnson said after scoring 13 points in 44:47. “But I was just ready to get out of there. [My teammates] are trying to celebrate and I’m ready to go.
“I’m like, ‘Let’s go into the locker room and shower and let’s get out of here. … We’ve got a tough game tomorrow.’ ”
The Clippers await the Nets (3-5) in Los Angeles Saturday night, but it’s understandable why Johnson’s teammates were so ready to celebrate. Friday night’s win over the Suns gave the Nets their first road win in five tries, and snapped a three-game losing streak overall.
It may only be two weeks into a six-month long regular season, but this was a win the Nets desperately needed.
“I was sprinting down to the other end of the court. … I haven’t done that in a while,” Nets coach Jason Kidd said of his postgame celebration with a smile, after getting up off the bench and shouting instructions throughout the game far more often than he had previously. “It was exciting. The tough times that we’ve been through [this season], this would have been an easy one to let go.
“It just shows the character of our guys, how they fought.”
Adversity struck the Nets early in this one, when Deron Williams went down with his latest ankle injury when his left foot landed on Suns center Miles Plumlee at the 7:20 mark of the first. Williams suffered a sprained left ankle on the play, though X-rays were negative and he wasn’t wearing a boot or using crutches postgame.
The Nets fell into a 29-18 hole after the first quarter as they struggled to contain the athleticism and hyperactive pace of the Suns and allowed Phoenix to outscore them 14-2 in fast break points.
Slowly but surely, however, the Nets began to fight their way back, closing the second half on a 14-4 run capped by six straight points from Shaun Livingston — who scored 18 points filling in for Williams — and then scoring the first 16 points of the second half, holding Phoenix scoreless for the first 6:58 of the third quarter.
The Suns battled back, however, pulling to within six at the end of the third and then taking the lead early in the fourth quarter. The two teams then went back-and-forth down the stretch, with the Nets largely relying on Brook Lopez, who scored 25 of his 27 points in the second half and overtime, including a hook shot with 2:45 remaining in regulation that gave the Nets a 90-87 lead.
“I told big fella he’s a beast,” said Kevin Garnett, who struggled again with his shooting, going 2-for-7 and finishing with four points, but finished with a game-high 14 rebounds. “I can’t tell you the emphasis I put on the word beast, but … you all get the message.
“He’s a beast. He’s one of the leaders in here and he carried us tonight.”
But after P.J. Tucker hit a 3-pointer to give the Suns a 92-90 lead with 39.9 seconds left in regulation, Joe Johnson came back down and hit a runner to tie the game with 29.9 remaining. After Goran Dragic, who led Phoenix with 19 points, missed a jumper over Lopez with less than five seconds remaining, the game went to overtime after the referees somehow ruled that Paul Pierce — who was clearly hit by Tucker — was fouled after the buzzer as he attempted to throw up a three-quarter court heave at the buzzer.
When the game shifted to the extra period, the two teams again went back-and-forth. It looked like the Nets might have finally taken control for good when a Livingston free throw after a pair of Lopez baskets gave them a 98-94 lead with 1:48 to play, but Dragic made a driving layup over Lopez and Tucker slammed home an alley-oop from Bledsoe to tie the game at 98 with 58.2 seconds remaining.
Then, after Garnett missed a jumper and Lopez had the rebound stripped from him by Dragic, the Suns came down for a potential go-ahead bucket. But after Channing Frye’s 3-point attempt rimmed out, Garnett eventually won the ensuing battle for the rebound by tipping it out to Johnson at the 3-point line.
Johnson then raced to the other end of the floor and then, after hesitating for a moment at the 3-point line — “I hesitated to make them think I was going to pull up … I had no intention of pulling up,” Johnson would later say — the Nets’ closer put a shot up over Frye’s outstretched arm and watched it settle into the basket, sending his entire team racing down to the other end of the court to celebrate with him.
“Any win at this point was big” Garnett said. “But the way we won … I thought we stayed in the game, we fought, we believed in each other in the system, and that’s what we’re going to have to do from here on out.”