Nets roll past Suns behind two-way player’s 30 points in Cam Thomas’ absence
PHOENIX — The Nets lost their leading scorer, but they won the game.
Shorthanded Brooklyn won’t have Cam Thomas for at least three weeks with a hamstring injury.
But they had enough to beat Phoenix and old friend Kevin Durant, 127-117, at Footprint Center.
One player’s injury is another’s opportunity. And in their next-man-up mantra, Tyrese Martin stepped up and showed out.
Martin poured in a career-high 30 points off the bench, surpassing Jeremiah Martin’s 24 as the most ever by a Nets two-way player.
He was 8-for-10 from deep, after having been just 5-for-18 combined over the first 21 games of his career. It was one 3-pointer shy of the most ever off the bench for the Nets.
“We’re going to miss [Thomas]. With that being said, it is what it is. We’re going to move on now, play this game, fight, compete and find a way,” coach Jordi Fernandez said.
And that’s exactly what his Nets did, improving to 9-10.
Fernandez has urged the Nets to play faster.
They piled up a 24-11 edge in fast break points, getting out in transition and running the Suns out of their own building.
Dennis Schroder stepped up with 29 points, trash-talking Durant right from the very first possession, even taking a charge on the star. Ben Simmons added 14 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.
After losing Friday in Philadelphia, the Nets have taken three straight to close this four-game swing, winning at Sacramento, Golden State and now Phoenix.
The Suns had been 9-1 with Durant, who called himself a “Net for life” and praised their play.
“They’re playing great ball,” Durant said. “I mean, people didn’t expect them to be out here beating teams like Golden State. They had some good wins throughout the season.”
Add this one to the list.
Brooklyn erased a seven-point first-half deficit to have it knotted at 63-all with the Suns at the break. They seized the game coming out of intermission.
The Nets stormed out of the locker room with a 17-3 run, including a dozen unanswered from 9:55 to 6:39 left in the third quarter.
Early on, Bradley Beal got free baseline but missed a dunk, with Simmons rebounding it and taunting the Suns star by miming that he smoked it.
Then after Williams stole the ball from Durant, he fed Simmons and got out on the break. Simmons threaded a perfect pass between two defenders back to Williams for a fast break dunk and 75-66 edge.
Cam Johnson drove and kicked to Schroder for a right corner 3. Then Schroder finished a transition layup of his own to give the Nets an 80-66 lead with 6:39 left in the third. Brooklyn spent the rest of the evening protecting it.
Durant finally broke his former team’s run thanks to a friendly rim, a 3-pointer that bounced up twice and in. But the Nets got some serendipity of their own to end the third.
Ex-Net Royce O’Neale turned the ball over trying to go deep for Durant. It gave Brooklyn the ball inbounding on the baseline, and Durant got whistled for a shooting foul on Martin with :00.1 left that easily could’ve been a technical for the latter sticking his leg out. But a review went Brooklyn’s way, and Martin made two of three for a 96-84 cushion going into the fourth.
And with their newfound endgame prowess, the Nets closed it out. Another Martin 3-pointer padded it to 108-93, and it reached 18 in the fourth.
Devin Booker finished with 31.
“Yeah, these guys have impressed the whole league. They impressed us,” Suns coach Mike Budenholzer, a candidate for the job that eventually went to Fernandez, said. “No matter who plays, they bring competitiveness and they play hard on both ends of the court. Defensively they’re disruptive, they get up into you. Offensively, they’re getting up a lot of 3s, but they’re driving and attacking you. They look like they’re a team that’s in a good, good place.”