Durant’s Jumpers Send Nets to 10th Straight
When it doubt, leave the game in the hands of Kevin Durant.
The future Hall of Famer nailed two huge jump shots in the final minutes to pave the way to a 108-107 victory for the Brooklyn Nets over the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday night.
Durant hit a seven foot jumper with 1:35 to go that broke a 104-all tie. After Atlanta’s John Collins answered with a jumper of his own to tie the game at 106, Durant responded with a 17-foot jumper to put the Nets up 108-106. They would never trail again as Brooklyn captured its 10 consecutive victory.
7 delivering in the clutch! pic.twitter.com/HKy0NVENlz
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) December 29, 2022
Durant finished the game with 26 points on 8-of-17 shooting with a perfect 9-for-9 from the free throw line.
Kyrie Irving also enjoyed a stellar game, leading all scorers with 28 points on 11-of-22 shooting. Iriving helped Brooklyn build an 11-point lead midway through the fourth quarter when he knocked down three consecutive shots, including back-to-back three pointers as Brooklyn led 93-82 with 9:21 to go in the game.
“I think the whole second half we were there for each other,” Durant said. “We made a couple of adjustments on a couple of guys and we were able to execute that. We were able to slow them down just a little bit.”
The Nets (23-12) find themselves right behind Boston for the top seed in the East, just two games back in fact. Brooklyn is also 14-1 in its last 15 games, with its only loss coming at the hands of the Celtics back on December 4. The Nets won’t see Boston again until January 12.
Until then, the Nets will try to extend their streak to 11 games on Saturday at Charlotte.
