MILWAUKEE — For all of the ups-and-downs — not to mention off-court attention — the Nets have experienced during their two weeks away from home, they arrived to face the league-worst Bucks on Saturday night with a chance to finish 4-2 on their six-game road trip while the circus came to Barclays Center.
And if the Nets are able to take care of business, they will be quite happy with the work they put in away from home.
“Well, I mean, any win at this point in the season is very valuable,” Joe Johnson said. “If we can go into Milwaukee with the attitude we had [Thursday] and come out with a win, then this will be a pretty good trip.
“We’ve just got to keep working, keep building, and hopefully we can keep this hunger going into Milwaukee.”
The Nets are in position to end the trip on a high note thanks to their response after being run off the floor in Portland on Wednesday night. On Thursday, the Nets put a similar beating on the Nuggets, outscoring Denver 29-8 in the first quarter and going on to win comfortably.
“I think it was good we started the way we did, I think it was good we responded the way we did,” Deron Williams said. “It’s great for us to get that win and, like I said, build on it.”
After their dreadful 10-21 start through the first two months of the season, the Nets have gone 17-8 since switching to their smallball lineup at the start of the new year. They also have begun to look like the team everyone expected them to be from the beginning of the season after assembling a roster that cost roughly $190 million in payroll and luxury tax commitments to put together.
By getting the win in Denver and potentially ending the trip with one in Milwaukee, the Nets also will ensure they remain ahead of the Bobcats for sixth place in the East, which means they would avoid a first-round matchup against either the Heat or Pacers, the two prohibitive favorites to reach the Eastern Conference Final.
“We’ve got to build on this win,” Williams said. “We can’t go out and lay an egg against Milwaukee now.
“This is a big game for us, to end the trip right.”
There weren’t many things you could really take away from the Nets’ blowout win over the Nuggets, but it appears recently acquired Marcus Thornton has already moved into the rotation.
Thornton entered the game in the first quarter in Denver, and finished with 10 points on 3-for-7 shooting in 17 minutes. He seemed to take the minutes previously allotted for Alan Anderson, who didn’t get in until the fourth quarter and finished with six points after playing the final 12 minutes.
Anderson has been struggling with his shot the past few weeks, and finished February 11-for-37 (29.7 percent) from behind the 3-point arc. And while Thornton, whom the Nets acquired from the Kings for Reggie Evans and Jason Terry last week, has struggled with his shot all season, he’s still capable of putting up points in bunches, as his 42-point outburst against Indiana with Sacramento in January proved.
The NBA announced Friday it will donate all proceeds — an amount not less than $100,000 — from the sale of Jason Collins jerseys to the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, as well as the Matthew Shepard foundation.
“I’m thrilled to work with the league to support two fantastic organizations, both of which work tirelessly to ensure LGBT youth get the resources and assistance they need to be successful in life,” Collins said in a statement.
Since his signing with the Nets on Sunday, Collins’ No. 98 jersey has become the top-selling jersey on NBAStore.com. He wears the No. 98 in honor of Matthew Shepard, a University of Wyoming student who was murdered in 1998 after being targeted for being openly gay.
Collins met with Shepard’s parents after the Nets’ 112-89 win in Denver on Thursday night, and presented them with an autographed No. 98 jersey.