"Maybe it’s a coincidence, but that’s the way we need to play every night. I guess we need to play every night like we’re playing OKC.” --- Brooklyn Nets center Brook Lopez

Winter superstorm Jonas arrived in NYC this weekend and blessed us with up to 18 inches of snow. Due to the storms results, the Brooklyn Nets pushed its late afternoon game against the Oklahoma City Thunder to the evening. Perhaps, just maybe, it had something to do with why the Nets decided to show up.

Brook Lopez led the Nets with 31 points and 10 rebounds, his 18th double-double of the season, to upset the Thunder and their star-studded cast, 116-106.

“He was making shots,” Oklahoma City Thunder small forward Kevin Durant simply stated regarding Brook’s big night.

With the win, the Nets ended their five-game losing streak while stopping the Thunder’s seven-game winning streak.

Before this game, which was delayed by four hours, it was viewed as a sure loss by just about everybody and on Sunday night, the Nets defied the odds. They never trailed and other than the 3rd quarter where the Nets mirrored the Thunder in points scored with 25, Brooklyn outscored OKC in every other quarter. Whenever OKC got close, the Nets found a way to answer and score consistently, which is something the Nets have struggled with all season long.

Brooklyn Nets Scores when it counts

When OKC’s Kyle Singler drained a three, set up by Kevin Durant in the 2nd quarter with a little over five minutes left, bringing OKC to within one down 45-46, Bojan Bogdanovic and Andrea Bargnani answered with a three and jumper respectively, putting the Nets back up by six, 51-45. In the 4th with a little over six minutes remaining, Dion Waiters brought OKC to within five 93-98 after his two-point shot.

Shortly after, the Nets would spend the next three minutes sealing their 12th win of the season. Thaddeus Young scored twice en route to another solid performance, scoring 14 points with 14 boards and Lopez added two.

“We went out and executed, we ran our stuff all the way through,” Young said post-game.

Yes, the Nets finally won a game but the biggest winner of all was the fans.

Brooklyn’s faithful braved the aftermath of Jonas, got to witness a victory and also got to witness two of the league's greatest players in Durant and Russell Westbrook. KD and Westbrook both produced double-doubles of their own in 32 and 10 rebounds and 27 and 11 rebounds, respectively and after the game Durant praised Lopez and Young for their efforts.

“They were tough,” Durant said. “They kicked our ass all night, you know, rebounding the ball, scoring in the paint. They did what they wanted to.”

And that’s coming from a credible opponent, actually referencing the Nets. And Durant is talking about the Nets edging OKC on the boards 49 to 46, including 18 offensive rebounds, which led to extra possessions for Brooklyn. Steven Adams, OKC’s muscle in the post and starting center was missing in action which has a lot to do with the success Lopez, Young and the Nets enjoyed on the glass and scoring inside and to their credit, they took advantage.

It’s also worth noting that after the beat-down the Utah Jazz laid on the Nets on Friday night, the Nets were able to bounce back and that started with the team’s best player. Against the Jazz, Lopez was limited to eight points having to deal with Rudy Gobert’s block party all night long. Against OKC, guarded mostly by Enes Kanter, Lopez got his mojo back, which seems to happen more often than not when playing the Thunder. Brook is averaging 28.5 ppg vs. OKC this year.

“I don’t know,” Lopez said regarding his play against OKC this season. “Maybe it’s a coincidence, but that’s the way we need to play every night. I guess we need to play every night like we’re playing OKC.”

So basically, the Nets have to figure out how they can alter what’s left of their regular season schedule to take on the Thunder until season’s end. Or maybe the Nets finally got the message of what head coach Tony Brown has been emphasizing in sharing the ball recording 24 assists on OKC.

“I thought our guys heed the message, shared the ball, moving, moving bodies, and the floor opened up for us,” Brown expressed post-game. “The options will present themselves, if we don’t force it.”

Until Tuesday’s game hosting the Miami Heat, the Nets will have the chance to do something they haven’t done in a while: smile.

Nets struggled on both ends, but to their credit, held Cavs to 91 points

On Monday night, at primetime, the Golden State Warriors handed the Cleveland Cavaliers their worst home loss of the season, 132-98. Unfortunately for the Brooklyn Nets, the Cavs were their next opponent. It was fun for Brooklyn and all of the fans in attendance who paid to see the stars that Cleveland has to offer, but not for the home team expected to defend their home-court.

From the opening tip to the final buzzer, the Cavs came to Barclays Center on Wednesday night and handled their business, beating the Nets, 91-78. It was exactly what the doctor ordered for the Eastern Conference leaders and while the Nets were within striking distance for the majority of the first half, the Cavs made their statement late in the third and never looked back. After Thomas Robinson’s layup cut the Cavs lead to 10, 63-53 with 4:41 left in the 3rd, Cavs reserve Matthew Dellavedova answered with a two of his own. Moments later, LeBron James added a three with three minutes and a half left in the third.

Dellavedova’s jumper kick-started a 10-2 run, increasing what was a harmless 10-point lead to an 18-point uphill climb for the Nets. To begin the 4th, the only Cavs starter in the game was J.R. Smith. For Lebron, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, their night was over. After scoring just three points against the Warriors, Love found his footing and rebounded in a big way.

He scored 17 points like Lebron and also grabbed 18 boards for the second time this season.

“I was just happy with Kevin going out there with a great mindset and getting back to his normal self,” Cavs head coach David Blatt said regarding Love’s bounce-back game. “Those are the kind of games he’s been giving us since the beginning of the year and for me, that is normal Kevin Love.”

He also assisted Lebron on his first two points of the game; a breakaway tomahawk slam. And the highlight play was the result of the vexing Cavs defense the Nets dealt with all night long. The Cavs scored 16 fast-break points and 19 off of turnovers they caused.

“Well, Coach has been pushing us about pushing the tempo, pushing our pace, getting up the floor, and I think we did that tonight,” Lebron said who also had five assists, just under his regular season average of six.

From the start, you could sense the urgency from the opposing team who looked like they were out to prove something and it would be difficult not crediting Golden State’s loss as inspiration.

“I’m sure it had something to do with it, but mostly it had to do with our guys reaching down and recognizing we had to get back on track right away,” said Blatt post-game. “It’s painful to get knocked down but it’s shameful to not get back up if you get knocked down. To the guys’ credit, they got back up and played a terrific basketball game.”

The Nets wish they could say the same. They only allowed 91 points to clearly the best team in the Eastern Conference but the offense wasn’t there.

Outside of Brook Lopez’s 16 points, Thaddeus Young chipped in 14 and Donald Sloan added 12 and nine assists. Wednesday’s loss signaled the Nets fourth straight and interim Head Coach Tony Brown continues to look for answers.

“I didn’t think it was our best effort since I have taken over,” Brown said post-game. “I don’t know if it was just because it was Cleveland, I don’t know, but clearly we can do better on both ends of the floor.”

If playing the best team in the Eastern Conference doesn’t rev you up to play, then what will?

Since Lionel Hollins was dismissed as the Brooklyn Nets head coach, the Nets have shown fight but against the Cavs they did not put forth the kind of effort they displayed against the Toronto Raptors, their previous game. As the offense went, the Nets went and the inability to get a rhythm going in the first half sealed the Nets fate for the remainder of the game.

After Cleveland, the road gets tougher. The Nets will host the Utah Jazz on Friday night who are fresh off of a tough OT loss to the New York Knicks and will then welcome the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Miami Heat. Nets’ fans expect wins, but more than wins, they expect a fight. It’s up to the Nets to decide whether that will be the norm going forward no matter how rough their season continues to be.

VIDEO: Brooklyn Nets Owner Mikhail Prokhorov Wants NBA Championship Ring

VIDEO: Brooklyn Nets introduce Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Jason Terry

Andrew Rosario, Chief Correspondent, What's The 411 SPORTS' takes us inside a press conference held at the Barclays Center introducing the newest members of the Brooklyn Nets team.

Gary Sussman, Vice President, Public Relations, opened the press conference with the introduction of Nets General Manager Billy King who introduced Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Jason Terry. It is the expectation that these new members of the Brooklyn Nets will make the team a formidable force in the NBA's Eastern Conference and a championship contender.

Prokhorov Wants A Ring

Brooklyn Nets Principal Owner, Mikhail Prokhorov, flew in from Moscow especially for this occasion. Prokhorov didn't mince any words, he expects the Brooklyn Nets to be a championship contender. He noted that Garnett, Pierce, and Terry each have at least one ring, while at the present moment, he has none.

Nets loss to Spurs comes one day after organizational shake-up

The San Antonio Spurs entered the Barclays Center in Brooklyn Monday night to take on the Brooklyn Nets with a seven-game winning streak since December 26th. On the other hand, the Nets, already without injured starting point guard Jarret Jack for the rest of the season and injured defensive player Rondae Hollis-Jefferson who is not scheduled to return until March, were now playing for the first time without Lionel Hollins as their head coach.

Hollins parted ways with the Nets organization yesterday and assistant coach Anthony Brown took the reigns as head coach for this contest and for the remainder of the season. One of Brown’s first decisions as head coach was to insert Wayne Ellington and Donald Sloan into the starting lineup.

Spurs power forward LaMarcus Aldridge got off to a hot start by scoring ten straight points at the open of the contest, but the Nets limited the Spurs’ scoring opportunities by rebounding and capitalizing on fast break opportunities. Newly minted point guard Shane Larkin used his quickness to penetrate the defense to score points or to create scoring opportunities for open teammates. By being effective on both sides of the ball, the Nets kept the score close, trailing by seven points at halftime.

San Antonio extended its lead to 21 points by the end of the third quarter with a balanced attack aided by five offensive rebounds and allowing none for the Nets. The Spurs never relinquished the lead winning the game 106-79.

Brook Lopez won the battle of the centers, holding Tim Duncan to eight points for the evening while scoring a team-high 18 points. LaMarcus Aldridge led all scorers with 25 points.

The Nets fell to 10-28 and Coach Brown offered this perspective for the rest of the season by stating “I think our guys’ mentality right now is pretty good, they want to get in, they want to work and you know try to use that to my advantage.”

Celtics’ Crowder's Big Night Dooms Nets; Shane Larkin Stumbles in Starting Role in Jarrett Jack’s Absence

As the temperature drops in Brooklyn so has the climate surrounding the Brooklyn Nets. On Saturday in a win against the Boston Celtics, 100-97, the Nets lost their starting point guard Jarrett Jack for the remainder of the season, to a torn ACL which he suffered late in the third quarter. On a freezing Monday night in Brooklyn, the Boston Celtics took advantage of Jack’s absence and just added to what has become a miserable season for the Barclays Center’s only professional basketball club.

The Celtics' Jae Crowder and all of his dreads scored a team-high 25 points and six rebounds, leading the C’s to a 103-94 victory over the Nets, winning the other half of the home-and-home series. Crowder started his big night as early as the first quarter, scoring 14 points which helped facilitate the Celtics (19-15) in creating distance, ending the first 12 mins of the game with a 37-22 lead. Despite his strong start, the play’s Crowder made towards the end of the game hurt the Nets (10-24) the most and proved to be the deciding factor in the games result.

When the Nets made their attempts to threaten the Celtics dominance in this game, as well as their chance at winning, Crowder answered the bell. Joe Johnson, who did a little bit of everything scoring 21 points with six rebounds and four assists, drained a big eight-foot jump shot with three mins left in the 4th which cut the Celtics lead to five, 90-85. In response, Crowder sinks a long-range bomb, increasing the C’s lead to eight, 93-85 with a little under three mins left in the final quarter.

“He’s hit big shots for us all year,” Celtics Head Coach Brad Stevens said reflecting on Crowder. “He’s not afraid of the moment and he stepped up.”

A minute later, the Nets would find themselves needing a stop, trailing by six, 95-89 and there was Crowder again, making the Nets pay-converting a driving layup and an and-1 to put the C’s up for good 98-89. And for the exclamation point, the Celtics next two points highlighted Marcus Smart, who drove to the rim with a minute left in the 4th and added a beautiful-acrobatic-reverse layup, avoiding Brook Lopez, which put the C’s up by nine, 100-91.

Late game execution continues to be a problem for the Nets but there is no doubt that Lionel Hollins and co. did not get off to the start that they would have hoped to. In the 1st quarter alone, the Nets committed eight turnovers which led to 10 Celtics points.

“We turned the ball over a lot, and that got them out on the open court kind of playing the game at their pace and so, obviously, it’s tough to put yourself in that position and come back from it,” Brook Lopez said post-game, scoring 19 points to the Nets cause.

Fortunately for the Celtics, their strong start was enough to propel them to the win, as their first quarter alone was more points than the Nets could ever rival throughout their entire game. To their credit, the Nets did outscore the C’s in every quarter following the 1st, but the damage was done.

“We just couldn’t make enough plays to get all the way back,” a disappointed Hollins said post-game. Hollins also does not want to associate the Nets lack of ball-control to the loss of Jack, stating that “there is always a rationalization for anything bad that happens” and simply, “we have to keep working and get better.”

In Jack’s place, Shane Larkin assumed the starting role and didn’t have the most dazzling performance like his counterpart, Isaiah Thomas, who added 19 points and seven assists, the second leading scorer on the C’s.

Larkin struggled to create for himself and for his teammates, ending his night with four points, two assists while criticizing his lack of aggressiveness to his low production.

“I’ve just got to go out there and play my game and stop thinking so much and just play,” Larkin said post-game. “I’ve shown I can do it. I’ve had great games this year, I’ve had not so good games this year. I’ve just got to stay being aggressive and just be consistent for my team and it’ll be better for sure.”

Larkin’s comments could be the theme of the Nets profile as a team this year. One of the few bright spots on the Nets continues to be the play of Thaddeus Young who chipped in a double-double, 23 and 15 rebounds to lead all Nets scorers. Jack's injury will force the Nets to take turns being the playmaker, especially in the backcourt, which could result in Johnson handling the ball a little more and tonight was a perfect example of that.

The Nets will host the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night at 7:30 pm.

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VIDEO: Los Angeles Lakers small forward Metta World Peace couldn't stay focused on the game because he didn't have time for a haircut and shave

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Heat Takes Control of the Second Half and Dwyane Wade Closes

Tonight’s game hosting the Miami Heat wasn’t Monday night’s blowout loss to the Orlando Magic. The Brooklyn Nets were in it to win it for the majority of Wednesday’s contest but towards the end of regulation, a particular star showed up and he wasn’t sporting a Brooklyn jersey. Dwyane Wade scored six of his team-high 28 points in the final six minutes of the 4th quarter propelling the Heat to a narrow 104-98 win against the struggling Nets.

The Heat improved to (15-9), their third straight win while the Nets continue to look for answers, falling to (7-18). Late in the 4th, the Nets had several opportunities to get in the win column and end their two-game losing streak, but Wade would have no part of it. He did what superstars do.

He closed.

When Thaddeus Young scored to get the Nets to within two points, down 87-89 with 5:58 left in the 4th, Wade drained a 12-foot jumper putting the Heat up by four, 91-87 at the 5:11 mark. Moments later, the Nets would turn the ball over and Wade took advantage, putting the Heat up by six, 93-87 just under five min left until the end of regulation. Wade would hit two more jumpers putting the Heat up by eight and 10 points respectively, and it just seemed like when he scored late, it hurt more than any of his fellow teammates prior.

“This is what he’s built his career on,” Heat head coach, Erick Spoelstra said post-game. “To be able to attack, to read defenses, to be able to make shots.”

Even Nets head coach, Lionel Hollins acknowledged that there was nothing they could do to cool him off.

“Well, you could decide to go double him and hopefully he passes it, but even when he did that, (Justise) Winslow hit a three, the other kid (Goran) Dragic hit a three earlier before he got to the end and that puts a little bit of caution in trying to go down there and just double-team him and taking the ball out,” Hollins said during his post-game press conference.

“He’s a great player,” Hollins added.

Chris Bosh, who scored seven, gets a front-row seat to the Wade show every night.

“He did pull a couple of things out of the bag and it was great,” Bosh said in the visitor’s locker-room.

Fortunately for the Nets, Brook Lopez validated why he’s great player also. After a disappointing outing against the Magic and Nikola Vucevic, Lopez scored 16 of his team-high 25 points in the first half, against Hassan Whiteside, who averages four blocks a game.

“It was huge for him confidence-wise to come out and play well,” Hollins said. “We need him to continue to play well offensively, but I thought he did some other stuff as well, but scoring wise he did real good.”

And Lopez’s start spearheaded the Nets 1st half surge. The Nets got off to a great start, finishing the 1st quarter with an eight-point lead, up 30-22. Every starter not named Joe Johnson contributed.

In the second, more of the same ensued. The Nets showed some fight. Even Wayne Ellington got into the act, scoring eight of his 12 in the second alone, including three straight baskets which kept the Nets ahead of the Heat. It didn’t take long until the Heat, who lead the Southeast division woke up. With 2:34 left until halftime, Goran Dragic and co. would score points leading a 9-4 run to put the Heat up by five, 55-50 going into the second half, which capped off a 33-point 2nd to regain control of the game.

And that run to end the 1st half, would carry the Heat into the second half, as they coasted, for the most part, exploiting the Nets with good ball movement. When it counted the most, Heat players turned to Wade and he delivered, which was nothing new. Other than Lopez, Jarrett Jack added a double-double (22 points and 10 assists) and Andrea Bargnani had some moments, chipping in with 10. You know what could’ve helped? Johnson producing more than five points in 33 min of play. You know what also could’ve helped? The Nets fouling after Wade put the Heat up by five, 103-98 with 43.5 secs left in the 4th.

“I told them that we needed to foul, I mean, come on,” Hollins said. “You got to foul. I got caught looking at something else, and when I looked over everybody is looking at me, but that kind of stuff happens.”

For the Nets sake, it doesn’t need to happen.

The Nets will get a day off today and on Friday will face another star. The Nets will visit Paul George and the 3rd seeded Indiana Pacers which presents another challenge. Every night seems like an uphill climb for the Nets. It is up to them whether or not that will continue and looking at their upcoming schedule beyond the Pacers, (Timberwolves on Sunday, Bulls on Monday, Mavericks on Wednesday), it just might.

What's The 411Sports correspondent Crystal L. Harris and filmmaker Spike Lee take time out to pose for a selfie before a New York Knicks v. Brooklyn Nets basketball game at the Barclays Center.