NEW YORK _ The thought of facing James Harden and Russell Westbrook seemed a little like a horror story, from the way coach Kenny Atkinson spoke about it. Here was this ferocious two-headed monster _ one that changes its shape and its style of attack depending on which one is at the helm _ and there was Kyrie Irving, the early hero in the Nets' disappointing 1-3 start.
That was the story going in, at least. Coming out, it's the Rockets that lived the horror story. The one in which they lost a 15-point, first-quarter lead and charged back in the fourth before eventually faltering against the new-look Nets.
And on this day, at least, it wasn't just Irving doing the damage. It was Caris LeVert and Garrett Temple and Taurean Prince. You know, the guys the Nets need to start producing if this season is to be anything more than a long, painful preamble to the Kevin Durant era. On Friday at the Barclays Center, it translated to a 123-116 win, only the Nets' second of the season, in a cohesive effort that looked a whole lot like the team has found a groove.
"After watching the (Rockets' 159-158 win over Washington on Wednesday), it's like, how do we slow these guys down?" Atkinson said before the game. "Just dealing with those two guys and all their shooters, it's the conundrum. It's a heck of a challenge. Seems like they've found the analytically perfect game."
But analytically perfect is not perfect-perfect, and though Harden especially made it a game in the fourth quarter, the Nets barely were hanging on before an exclamation point by Irving, who hit a corner 3-pointer with 55.9 second left, plus a free throw, for a 118-108 lead.
Prince scored a career-high 27 points with 12 rebounds, and LeVert scored 25 and Irving had 22 with 10 assists.
"A lot of guys played well," Atkinson said. "I thought that's what we need going forward. We can't rely on Kyrie every night being Superman."
Harden led all scorers with 36, though he and Westbrook were held to 3-for-22 shooting from 3-point range.
It certainly didn't start as nicely as the ending.
The Nets looked cohesive for all of eight minutes before Harden took over and Irving faded into the background. The Nets committed 10 turnovers in the first quarter, Irving was held to one shot, which he missed, and Harden scored 11 points in the frame helping the Rockets to a 33-24 lead at the end of the first quarter. The Nets led 23-15 with 4:19 left in the first before Houston Rockets finished on an 18-1 run and LeVert racked up three fouls in the first 11 minutes. Five of their turnovers happened in the last four minutes.
The Nets, though, turned a 15-point, second-quarter deficit into a two-point halftime lead. And they did it with Irving mostly on the bench. Led by a re-invigorated Levert and Temple, the Nets busted out on a 23-6 run. LeVert scored 10 points in that span, including a go-ahead dunk on a feed from Temple, despite playing with the first-quarter fouls. LeVert, who didn't get his fourth foul until the waning seconds of the game, hit a floater with 29 seconds left in the first half put the Nets up 61-59 at the break. Temple, meanwhile, gave the Nets the jolt that was very much missing in the first quarter by scoring eight points with two assists after coming in off the bench with 6:29 to go (he also had a basket in the first quarter).
Prince hit back-to-back 3s in the dwindling minutes of the third quarter, one uncontested from the right wing, and added a dunk to give the Nets their largest lead of the game at 85-73 with 3:48 to go. Two of Prince's baskets in the sequence were on assists from Irving. Temple's 3 from the top of the key put the Nets up 93-78.
"We've got to figure it out," Atkinson said of the team's cohesiveness. "Our defense bailed us out today."
