Lakers domination over Nets ended in the 4th Quarter; Bogdanovic, Lopez, and Kilpatrick each scored over 20 points in the win for Brooklyn

On Wednesday, December 14, 2016, the Brooklyn Nets hosted the Los Angeles Lakers at the Barclays Center. Both teams entered the contest looking for a win to stop their respective losing streaks. Although Nets point guard Jeremy Lin returned to the lineup for the first time in 17 games two days prior in Houston, Nets fans would not see Lin as he was inactive due to tightness in his lower back.

The first quarter of the game was tight between the two teams and despite the Nets shooting 32% from the field, they found themselves only trailing by three points due to their dominance at the free throw line. The Lakers cooled off in the second quarter and Brooklyn capitalized by outscoring Los Angeles 25-13 ending the half with a nine-point lead (52-43).

As the third quarter began, Brooklyn’s offense was out of sync due to failing to secure the ball, committing turnovers in their first possessions of the half. The turnovers led to fast break points for the Lakers. After a timeout called by coach Kenny Atkinson, the Nets had better ball movement on offense but it didn’t prevent the Lakers from outscoring the Nets by ten in the quarter which included a spectacular dunk by Larry Nance, Jr. The Nets found themselves trailing by one at the start of the fourth quarter (76-75).

The Nets’ performance late in games has been a concern this season but on this night, the team rallied to take the lead. Once the Nets had the lead, they never relinquished it and kept the Lakers scoreless in the last six minutes of the game; ending it with a 10-point spread, the Nets 107 and the Lakers 97.

Scoring 20 or more points for Brooklyn were Bojan Bogdanovic (23), Brook Lopez (20) and Sean Kilpatrick (22), and Joe Harris, the only other Nets player scoring in double digits, chipped in 11 points. Nets power forward Trevor Booker added an impressive 18 rebounds in the winning effort.

On his team’s effort on the defensive side of the ball, Coach Atkinson asserted “I think if we’re going to take a step, that’s where we need to take a step, is defensively, so I was very pleased.”

To further illustrate the change in the team, Lopez stated “We just stayed together and kept our concentration in focus… We haven’t done that at times before, but we definitely had to stick to it tonight.”