SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ The Brooklyn Nets have perfected the art of the comeback, but no one could have expected them to dig their way out of a 28-point third-quarter hole that was only down to 25 at the start of the fourth quarter. But that's exactly what they did as Kenny Atkinson inserted benchwarmers Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Treveon Graham and Jared Dudley for a spark of life and they fed super-hot D'Angelo Russell, who scored 27 of his career-high 44 points in the fourth quarter.
After forcing a turnover by Kings rookie Marvin Bagley III with 5.9 seconds left in a tie game, they gave the ball to Hollis-Jefferson and he drove down the lane to score the winning layup with 0.8 seconds left in the Nets' 123-121 victory. When a desperation full-court heave by Buddy Hield missed at the buzzer, the Nets' bench stormed the court and celebrated the improbable win Tuesday night at Golden 1 Center.
The Nets (37-36) climbed back above the .500 mark and snapped a three-game losing streak with the win. Russell shot 17-for-33 for the game, including 10-for-15 in the fourth quarter, and he added 12 assists. Hollis-Jefferson, who didn't play until the fourth quarter had 14 points.
Bagley led the Kings (34-36) with 28 points, and De'Aaron Fox had 27 points and nine assists.
Trailing by 25 points entering the fourth quarter, the Nets found the wherewithal to stage one of their trademark rallies, opening with a 26-6 run to cut their deficit to 109-104 with 4:43 left to play on a pair of foul shots by Russell. Hollis-Jefferson provided a spark off the bench with 10 points in that stretch, and Russell matched him.
At one point, Russell scored 16 straight Nets points to cut their deficit to one point, and then Dudley drained a go-ahead three with 1:11 left to play. The Kings tied it on a pair of Fox foul shots before Bagley's turnover set up the winning play by Hollis-Jefferson.
The Nets arrived bearing the weight of a three-game losing streak to begin their seven-game trip and still were feeling the sting of the buzzer-beating three-pointer by the Clippers' Lou Williams that beat them Sunday in Los Angeles. Nets coach Kenny Atkinson said their physicality improved in that game, but he was looking for more against the Kings.
Asked how to slow down their high-paced attack, Atkinson said, "Transition defense, transition defense, transition defense. We have to control their speed and their fast break. It starts with us being good offensively; you want that thing to go in the hoop, so that'll slow them down a little bit."
Midway through the first period, Kings rookie Marvin Bagley III came off the bench and scored seven straight points to help ignite a 25-10 run that gave them a 38-25 lead. The Kings shot 61.7 percent in the period and outrebounded the Nets, 15-9.
So, everything Atkinson feared materialized at the outset, and when Bagley hit a wide-open left-wing three to open the second period, Atkinson angrily called timeout after just 20 seconds. From there, the Nets gradually worked their way back into the game, cutting their deficit to five points, but De'Aaron Fox made two baskets in a 7-0 Kings burst to open a 65-53 lead.
The Nets trimmed the deficit to eight at halftime, but the urgency still was missing at the outset of the third quarter as the Kings opened with a 20-0 run, including nine points from Fox and five points from Harrison Barnes, to take their biggest lead to that point of the game at 86-58. The Nets missed six shots and had four turnovers in that span and looked utterly lost.
By the time the third period ended, the Kings already had topped the century mark and held a 103-78 lead.
