Caris LeVert
Jim McIsaac

The Brooklyn Nets defeated the San Antonio Spurs convincingly at home and improved to two games over .500.

  • Brooklyn Nets 101 (32-30)
  • San Antonio Spurs 85 (33-29)
  • NBA, Final, Box Score
  • Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York

For the first time since Dec. 03, 2014, the Brooklyn Nets got the best of the San Antonio Spurs.

This game projected to be a pretty interesting contest on paper. San Antonio won in heartbreaking form during the first meetup, so this was certainly a revenge match for Brooklyn. Not to mention, both of these teams have become well renowned for their zone defenses; so stylistically there are certainly similarities.

The Spurs had been reeling prior to tip-off. They were in the midst of their “rodeo road trip” and had recently lost to the lottery-bound Wizards and the 12-win New York Knicks.

Not to mention, Monday’s game came on an ultra-difficult road/road back-to-back for the Spurs, so the odds were against them.

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Brooklyn certainly took advantage of this older, worn down San Antonio Spurs cast. Brooklyn ran its opponent off screens and terrorized the Spurs in transition; the Nets scored 16 points while the Spurs only netted 2 fast break points.

D’Angelo Russell followed up his clutch performance in Charlotte with another tremendous game. The first-time All-Star finished with 23 points, seven rebounds, eight assists and five made threes. Most notably, he hit a jaw-dropping near-30-foot three-point bomb in the third quarter:

Joe Harris was also on fire tonight, sinking 5 out 6 tries from deep. He moved ahead of San Antonio’s Davis Bertans as the league-leader in three-point percentage; a fitting destiny for the All-Star weekend three-point champ.

Meanwhile, Bertans had on off night from deep going 0-2 from behind the arch and scored only two points in the game.

On a lesser note, Caris LeVert showed signs of normalcy, especially during the second quarter. LeVert scored back-to-back points on two gorgeous drives to the rim including this insane hanging and-1 bucket:

LeVert finished with 15 points on the night as well as an impressive seven dimes. His 5-for-14 shooting line certainly leaves a lot to desire, but the glimpses of greatness were certainly much brighter.

The Nets will have the opportunity to extend this two-game win streak on Wednesday when the Washington Wizards come into town. Coverage starts at 7:30 p.m. ET on YES Network.

 NEXT: Brooklyn Nets, D’Angelo Russell knock off Charlotte Hornets 

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Matt Brooks
An NBA fanatic who specializes in the advanced analytics of the game. I cover the Brooklyn Nets here in the city. Follow me on Twitter for semi-witty basketball tweets. @MattBrooksNBA

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