DENVER — The Nets came up with the perfect response to their pathetic showing in Portland: they made the Nuggets look even worse.
Brooklyn dominated Denver right from the opening tip, outscoring the Nuggets 29-8 in the first quarter and cruising to a 112-89 victory inside the Pepsi Center Thursday night.
“They pretty much did what we did last night,” Deron Williams said. “So there it is.”
With the win, the Nets (27-29) moved a half-game ahead of the Bobcats for sixth place in the Eastern Conference, and moved back to within four games of the Raptors for first place in the Atlantic Division. They also gave themselves a chance to finish their six-game, two-week Western road trip with a 4-2 record, if they can knock off the league-worst Bucks in Milwaukee Saturday night.
After Wednesday’s 124-80 loss in Portland, the Nets spoke about the need to bounce back against the Nuggets (25-32) Thursday, especially given the Nets’ season-long struggles in second halves of back-to-back games, entering Thursday’s game with a 3-10 record in them.
But if there was any doubt about how the Nets would respond against the Nuggets, who were missing Ty Lawson (ribs) and former Knick Wilson Chandler (knee) in addition to several long-term injuries that left them with just nine healthy players, it only took a few minutes to see how the game would play out. The Nets went on to have the third-biggest points swing from a loss to a win on back-to-back nights in NBA history — and the biggest in Nets history — in a game that was over almost before it began.
“Well, [Nets coach Jason Kidd] gave us a great talk today,” Joe Johnson said. “He chewed us out about last night, about the poor performance defensively and not moving the ball offensively.
“As you can see tonight, guys came out with a different attitude.”
By the time the first quarter was over, any hopes Denver had of getting out of their recent funk, which has seen the Nuggets lose four straight and nine of their last 11, quickly evaporated, as the Nets took advantage of all kinds of forced and unforced Nuggets errors early on.
The Nets held Denver to 3-for-18 (16.7 percent) shooting in the first, which included the Nuggets missing three dunks and an easy layup. The Nets also forced the Nuggets into committing eight turnovers that led to eight points — matching Denver’s total for the quarter.
Brooklyn also had its way at the other end, shooting over 50 percent from the field and getting several easy baskets in transition because of Denver’s many miscues.
“We just knew what we had to do,” Williams said, one of 10 players to finish with at least eight points for the Nets, who were led by 18 points from Paul Pierce. “The team that showed up yesterday wasn’t us, and wasn’t who we wanted to be, and we needed to come out with a better effort tonight and we were able to do that.”
The eight points Denver scored in the first quarter Thursday was the lowest total any NBA team had scored in the first quarter of a game this season, and the fewest the Nets had allowed in any quarter this season.
Things didn’t get any better for the Nuggets in the second, which the Nets opened with a 15-7 run to take a 44-15 lead on an Andrei Kirilenko layup with 7:15 to go in the second that even sent a few people heading to the exits before the first half had ended.
From there, it was simply a matter of playing out the final 30 minutes of the game, with the Nets spending a good portion of the second half leading by more than 30 points in a game the Nets seemed to have on cruise control basically from the opening tip.
“It just felt like a pickup game tonight,” Joe Johnson said with a smile. “It didn’t feel like a real game, but I’m glad we got the win.”