As the game ended on Tuesday night in Toronto, Coach Jason Kidd briefly stood near center court of the Air Canada Centre with his head in his hands. The Brooklyn Nets had just put an end to their losing streak, but it wasn’t easy.

After developing a 15-point lead early in the fourth quarter, the Nets nearly squandered it all late. But a last-second corner three-point attempt to win the game by Amir Johnson missed the mark, the Raptors could not tip in the rebound and Brooklyn escaped Toronto with a 102-100 victory over the Raptors.

The win snapped a five-game losing streak for the Nets and afterward Coach Kidd told reporters he was proud of the way his team stepped up to the challenge.

“Those guys in that locker room finally said they’d had enough,” Jason said. “You have a bunch of guys in there with pride and they understood what they had to do tonight against the division-leading Raptors and got a big win on the road.”

The Nets were without center Brook Lopez for the sixth consecutive game and point guard Deron Williams for the fifth time in the least six games, but got big contributions from Lopez’s replacement Andray Blatche and Williams’ backcourt mate Joe Johnson. Blatche scored 24 points on 10-of-16 from the field and Johnson chipped in 21 points, six rebounds and four assists. Five Nets players had at least five rebounds and five had at least four assists.

“Everybody was involved,” Coach Kidd said. “Everybody had five or six rebounds across the board. That’s what team rebounding does. We are a big team and from our point guard to our center, everybody is involved on the defensive rebounds. We even got some offensive rebounds tonight.”

However what was perhaps most indicative of the Nets’ better effort in Tuesday’s win was their play on the defensive end, where they held Toronto to just 42 percent shooting from the field. Joe Johnson said afterward that Brooklyn was more vocal on the defensive end, something Coach Kidd has been preaching in practice.

“Jason has been on us about being

[too] quiet out there on the court,” Johnson said. “Tonight, we were communicating, keeping guys in the right spots and just helping one another.”

Brooklyn came out of the gate hot and built a 10-point lead halfway through the first quarter. But after pushing the advantage up to 22-12, the Nets were outscored 16-4 in the final 3:57 of the first and went into the second down by two.

After falling down by as many as five in the second, Brooklyn stepped up defensively and the offense went on a run to regain the lead. The teams traded barbs late in the quarter, but it was the Nets who took a four-point lead in at halftime.

On the other end of the midgame break was the dreaded third quarter, a frame that has plagued Brooklyn all season and been a large contributor in many of their losses. But the Nets were strong in the third, once again pushing their lead as high as 10 points. By the end of the quarter, they had gained a point on their halftime lead and went into the fourth ahead of Toronto by five.

“Those guys came out and acted as it if it was the first quarter,” Coach Kidd said of the effort of his team in the third. “[At halftime] we didn’t even talk about the third quarter. We just talked about what we did well in the first half, what worked, and what we needed to continue to look at. Those guys built on that lead in the third quarter.”

At the start of the fourth, Brooklyn seemed well on its way to putting the game away. Coach Kidd elected to start the fourth with starters Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, and reserves Tyshawn Taylor, Alan Anderson and Mirza Teletovic on the floor. He later brought in Blatche for Garnett and Johnson for Pierce, and everything seemed to be working out right as the Nets pushed their lead to 15 when Blatche hit a jumper with 5:22 to go.

Brooklyn Nets v Toronto RaptorsHowever that was the last field goal of the game for the Nets. Shortly thereafter Jason brought Pierce, Garnett and Livingston back into the game to close it out, but the move ended up working opposite to its intended effect.

“I’ll take a little of the blame. I probably should have just stayed with the group that was going because we were in that situation in Washington,” Coach Kidd said. “But I was just focused on trying to close the door so we could get a win.”

The final five minutes of Tuesday night’s game featured several flashbacks to that night in Washington on November 8th, when the Nets squandered an 11-point lead in the fourth and ended up losing in overtime.

Like that game, Jason felt late in the fourth that he had gone a little long with his reserve group on the floor and despite their success he opted to get his starters back in to close the game. He noted afterward that the game closing strategy for the team remains a work in progress in the absence of Williams and Lopez.

“Those guys off the bench were huge and they’ve been like that all season,” he said. “But I wanted to be able to close the door with [the starters]. It’s something we’re going to work together at. Maybe not bring them all back at once. Maybe we’ll go one by one.”

The substitutions came in the midst of a three-shot trip to the free throw line for Toronto’s Steve Novak. Novak hit all three and over the next three minutes, the Raptors outscored the Nets 14-0. That outburst brought Toronto within one and after a Shaun Livingston free throw with 11.2 seconds to go broke a five-minute scoring drought for Brooklyn, the Raptors got the ball back down two with a chance to tie or win the game on the final play.

Over those last few seconds, Jason once again felt a little déjà vu back to that early November game in Washington. Like Tuesday night’s game, the Nets still had a chance to defeat the Wizards despite squandering their lead that night. But a last second tip-in from Nene sent the game to overtime where Brooklyn lost it.

Toronto had a similar opportunity after Amir Johnson’s miss, but Novak’s tip in attempt fell harmlessly to the floor as the buzzer sounded. Coach Kidd explained afterward that his momentary head in hands reaction was a result of nearly seeing the same thing happen to his team twice.

“They had a great look to win it there at the end,” Coach Kidd said. “In the Washington game, we got the stop and someone tips it in. Amir had a great look. I thought that was going to be the one that was going to hurt us. I didn’t know if [Novak] had time to control the tip or get the ball.”

But despite that brief moment of relief, Coach Kidd noted after the game that as the clock ticked down, he believed in his team and its defense to get the crucial stop they needed.

“I was confident. The one thing we’ve always been talking about since training camp is that our defense is going to win ball games and we got a stop,” Jason said. “The schemes defensively and offensively weren’t always perfect, but those guys stayed the course. You can see the growth. The guys fought on the road against a talented team and we got a win.”

NEXT UP

The Nets (4-10) head home and get right back to it on Wednesday night when they host the Los Angeles Lakers (7-8) at Barclays Center.

Los Angeles was also on the road on Tuesday night, coincidentally in Washington D.C., where they lost a 116-111 thriller against the Wizards.

Coach Kidd was asked after Tuesday’s win whether his lineup would look any different against the Lakers on Wednesday, but he would not commit to any changes. However he did note that players like Reggie Evans, who did not play against the Raptors, will need to be prepared to face the Lakers.

“The guys who played tonight, whatever minutes they played, they played well and they played hard,” Coach Kidd said. “We can’t play everybody every night, but we have to now turn the page and get ready for the Lakers and the guys who didn’t play have to be ready.”

Wednesday night’s contest between Brooklyn and Los Angeles is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff and the game can be seen on YES.

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