NEW YORK — Yuta Watanabe’s midrange jumper caromed off the back of the rim as Kyrie Irving sped in from the left elbow, leapt and delivered the one-handed slam that electrified Barclays Center. Watanabe giddily put his hands on his head. Kevin Durant erupted from the bench. Nic Claxton appeared to be near hyperventilation.
It’s not just that the Nets won their 12th straight in a 139-103 romp over the rebuilding Spurs Monday — though that’s plenty important. And it’s not that an Irving dunk is rare enough that players were embracing on the sideline. It’s also, too, that these Nets — the ones that ESPN analyst Jay Williams called “the most unlikeable team maybe in the history of the NBA” in November — are something that they haven’t been for a very, very long time.
The Nets are fun. And, if the roar at a packed Barclays is any indication, they might just be becoming likeable, too.
Irving was 11-for-14 from the field and had a game-high 27 points with a team-high eight rebounds in a little over 28 minutes. Durant scored 25 points with 11 assists. They shot 62.4% from the floor, scored 24 points on 18 turnovers, and had 32 team assists. It was their largest margin of victory against the Spurs in franchise history. It’s the longest winning streak in the league this season and their fifth straight home win.
Afterward, there was cheering coming from the locker room. “We actually just replayed [the dunk] to the group,” Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said. “We talked about celebrating each other . . . our guys appreciate it, enjoy it and really cheer him on. It’s pretty cool . . .
“We show up and we play and whoever we’re going to play, we hoop out and so that’s our message. That’s who we want to be as a team.”
The Nets’ domination was systematic and thorough: They led by as many as 17 in the first quarter and never trailed, taking a 74-47 lead into halftime. Irving, who’s putback slam came with 8:52 left in the second quarter, was 9-for-10 in the first half, for 21 points, with eight rebounds. Ben Simmons, meanwhile, had nine assists in the first half — matching the most in one half of any Nets player this season.
The Spurs, who came into the day allowing a league-high 31 points in the restricted zone, did more of the same against the Nets, who outscored them 28-18 in the paint in the first half. They also outrebounded the Spurs 27-18 in the first half — an area Vaughn has stressed repeatedly, both because it was a weakness and because the Nets have no shortage of scoring options if they control possession.
The win streak is two shy of the franchise record. Meanwhile, Vaughn — the so-called “write-in candidate” who’s unexpectedly helped turn this team around — is now 23-7 since taking over head coaching duties from Steve Nash. This, coming off a month of December where the team was first in offensive rating and effective field goal percentage, while making steady strides on the defensive game that so often victimized them in the early weeks.
The Nets have also won 15 of their last 16 and have gone from 10th place in late November to now just one game in the loss column behind the Eastern Conference-leading Celtics. Vaughn, meanwhile, has been a point of stability for what was previously a highly unstable franchise. It’s something, he said, he learned as Gregg Popovich’s assistant with the Spurs from 2010 to 2012.
“I do think being around championship culture matters — just the way you handle your business on a day-to-day basis … not being too high, too low,” Vaughn said. “I learned that being in Spursland. We won a lot of games, but we were consistently trying to get better and it was incremental gains. We used our dinners together. We used our shootarounds together. We used our bus rides together to create a culture of wanting to be accountable to each other. That was part of the most special time in my life of being around guys who cared about each other and cared about performing for each other. Not letting each other down. So. if you can create that in the locker room, that’s what this thing’s about.”
It's a good lesson, learned a long time ago. But it's clear it's one he's trying to recreate.
