Hornets looking for revenge on Nets
CHARLOTTE -- The Charlotte Hornets hope to extract revenge on the Brooklyn Nets in the same manner that they did on the Chicago Bulls earlier this season when the clubs meet in a rematch Friday night.
The Nets shocked the Hornets 134-132 in two overtimes Wednesday night, getting the winning hoop when Charlotte's Malik Monk fumbled the ball in the final seconds to Brooklyn's Joe Harris, who turned it into a tie-breaking layup.
"We'll see this team again on Friday night," Hornets coach James Borrego vowed to reporters afterward. "We'll play hard on Friday night. I expect our guys to respond."
The Nets' ninth win in their last 10 games came in improbable fashion. The Hornets blew a late eight-point lead in regulation, then fouled DeMarre Carroll in the backcourt with 1.2 seconds left Brooklyn one point behind.
Carroll then made one of what turned out to be three free throws because of a lane violation, sending the game into the first overtime.
"Great fight," Nets coach Kenny Atkinson assessed after the game. "We lost the game three or four times.
"Just a total team win. There were a lot of big plays from the whole group, and that's kind of how we're built, that's how we're going to keep going forward."
In a historic effort, Spencer Dinwiddie bombed in 37 points to lead a Nets bench that outscored its Charlotte counterparts 55-35.
Among several individual, team and league distinctions, Dinwiddie matched his season-high with 11 assists, tied a Nets record with seven 3-pointers off the bench and became just the fifth player in NBA history to record 35 or more points and 10 or more assists in the same game as a reserve.
Dinwiddie's 30-point game was his third of the season, tying Cliff Robinson's all-time franchise record, and was his eighth time scoring 25 or more this season, the most among NBA reserves.
The loss for the Hornets was similar to their 112-110 nail-biter at Chicago in October.
Two nights later, the clubs met again, with Charlotte getting more than even with a 135-106 pounding.
It was the Hornets' only previous home-and-home series this year.
Charlotte has lost two in a row in the wake of a two-game winning streak. The losses both came on the road after they'd completed a 3-2 homestand with wins over Cleveland and Detroit.
Kemba Walker had 35 points and Jeremy Lamb 31 in Wednesday's loss.
The day off between games should help the Hornets design a way to combat a Nets box-and-one defense that stalled Walker late in the game and in regulation.
Walker had 31 points in the game's first 45 minutes, but then was held to just one field goal in the final three minutes of regulation and 10 minutes of overtime.
"The way they guarded me, I don't know if anyone else in this league is getting guarded like they guarded me," he insisted to reporters afterward. "It was like a box-and-one. I haven't seen that since I was in college. It was crazy. I guess that's what teams are going to do. I have to trust in my teammates to make plays."
