Kevin Durant leads Nets' rally in bounce-back win over Pelicans

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NEW ORLEANS — The Nets’ 12-game winning streak ended Wednesday night.

On Friday, they made sure they didn’t continue a losing skid, pulling out a 108-102 come-from-behind victory over the Pelicans at Smoothie King Center.

Kevin Durant poured in a game-high 33 points, while Kyrie Irving shook off a 7-for-22 shooting night to score 10 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter, including sinking a huge 3-pointer in the final minute. In the end, it was the Nets’ defense that let them claw back from a 15-point deficit to win.

“It just shows that we have growth in areas, being challenged by other teams on the road,” said Irving, whose 30-footer made it 106-100 with 43.7 seconds left. “You saw a few ins and outs for me in that fourth quarter. You look back a year ago — and I could admit this about myself — I probably would’ve been pissed. I probably would’ve been too out of it, not making enough shots for us to get over the hump.

“Our growth as a team, it’s just seeing some of our leaders on the team including myself, just be poised. It’s making a big difference. The shots are gonna go in and out sometimes, but if we get defensive stops, we do the little things, we put ourselves in a great chance every game. That’s where I feel like we’re making some incredible strides in games like this where we can come out with a W.”

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That win pulled the Nets (26-13) within a game of league-leading Boston, and a game ahead of the third-place Bucks in the Eastern Conference. The Nets have now won 16 of their past 18.

They might not have responded well at the start — the Nets were down by 15 in the first half against the Pelicans (24-15), who were playing without Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram — but they did enough to pull out the win.

CJ McCollum scored 28 points for New Orleans, but the Nets held the Pelicans to just 39.8 percent shooting for the night and 38 points in the second half.

“We’re trending toward hitting first and making contact and being OK with that contact,” coach Jacque Vaughn said. “If we want to get to where we want to it’s going to be a necessity on a nightly basis. We’ve taken that challenge. … Our group’s been enjoying hitting somebody.”

The Nets fell behind by as many as 15, at 43-28 on a Naji Marshall free throw and again at 45-30 on Devonte Graham’s short floater with 6:53 left in the half.

It was still 64-53 New Orleans at intermission, but whatever Vaughn said at the break seems to have worked.

“The biggest adjustment at halftime is we decided to guard the basketball and take pride in doing it, and 38 points for them in the second half really shows that,” Vaughn said. “The way we climbed into the basketball we were definitely more physical in the second half, dictated more possessions. At the end of the day we wanted to win and did the things necessary to do so.”

The Nets stormed out of the locker room with a 17-5 run. After Durant missed on a turnaround, a tap-out by Nic Claxton (nine points, nine boards, five blocks) turned into a Royce O’Neale 3-pointer and 70-69 lead.

Moments later, O’Neale — who bounced back after going 0-for-8 from 3-point range Wednesday by going 4-for-7 from downtown on Friday — hit another from behind the arc to push it to 78-74 with 6:03 left in the third.

The Nets led 88-85 when T.J. Warren — playing through a left rib contusion that had knocked him out of the loss to the Bulls — drilled a wide-open 3-pointer with 8.4 seconds left in the third.

The Nets suffered through a nearly 4 ½-minute scoreless drought to start the fourth quarter. They went 0-for-5 with three turnovers, but their defense kept them in it, holding New Orleans to just 2-for-10 shooting.

Warren broke the slump with a reverse layup that knotted the score at 90-all with 7:38 to play. And Irving — who had been 4-for-16 to that point — followed with a pull-up 3-pointer to put the Nets back up 93-90.

Still clinging to a three-point lead with 43 seconds left, Irving drilled another trey to put it away.

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