It took the NBA's longest-tenured player to cool off the league's hottest team.
Kevin Garnett turned back the clock in the fourth quarter Wednesday night, scoring 11 of his 13 points in the final 12 minutes and came up with the game's biggest defensive play to lead the Nets to a 102-98 victory over the Warriors inside Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
With the win, the Nets (14-21) now have a four-game winning streak — their longest of the season — and finally climbed back into the Eastern Conference playoff picture, passing the Pistons to move into eighth place despite still being seven games under .500.
Much of that is thanks to Garnett, who opened the fourth quarter with a three-point play before knocking down a pair of turnaround jumpers and a stepback to help the Nets keep pace with the red-hot Warriors (24-14), who came into the game riding a 10-game winning streak and hoping to become the first team in NBA history to complete an undefeated road trip of at least seven games.
But his biggest contribution came with 12.8 seconds left and the Nets clinging to a 96-93 lead with the best shooter in the league in Stephen Curry — who finished with a game-high 34 points — on the other side of the court. But after Warriors coach Mark Jackson elected not to call a timeout after a Garnett miss, Curry wound up throwing a pass straight into Garnett's chest to commit the most crucial of Golden State's 18 turnovers.
Garnett then passed the ball to Johnson — who finished with a team-high 27 points — who was fouled and knocked down a pair of free throws to ice the game.
The teams went back-and-forth throughout the fourth quarter, exchanging the lead multiple times. Golden State eventually took a 93-89 lead after a Klay Thompson 3-pointer with 4:06 remaining followed a Curry runner over Paul Pierce.
But the Nets fought back one final time, getting a pair of free throws from Johnson before Andray Blatche hit a stepback jumper to tie the game at 93 with 2:26 remaining.
Then, after the teams exchanged misses for the next minute, Shaun Livingston drew a foul on Curry and made one of two free throws before a loose ball foul on David Lee led to another pair of free throws for Johnson to push Brooklyn's lead to 96-93 with a minute left.
Livingston then stole the ball from Andre Iguodala on Golden State's next possession, and after Garnett's jumper missed as the shot clock expired, Curry's miscue led to Johnson free throws that looked like they had given the Nets the win.
There still was a bit of unfinished business, however, after Livingston inexplicably fouled Curry on a 3-pointer, which led to him knocking down all three free-throw attempts to make the score 98-96 with 9.1 seconds left.
But after Livingston inbounded to Garnett with 8.5 seconds remaining, the 19-year vet calmly knocked down a pair of free throws to push the lead back to 100-96.
It didn't look like the Nets were going to be able to hang with the red-hot Warriors in the first quarter, when Curry and Harrison Barnes immediately got hot from behind the arc to help Golden State blow open the game early, taking a 32-16 lead late in the first quarter on a 3-pointer by Harrison Barnes.
But the Nets got a pair of 3-pointers from Mirza Teletovic and Johnson on back-to-back possessions to close the first trailing 32-22, and then continued their comeback at the start of the second against a very weak Warriors second unit.
Led by Andrei Kirilenko — who scored seven straight points and then hit Blatche for a jumper, the Nets completed a 20-5 run with a Jason Terry 3-pointer midway through the second quarter to cut Golden State's lead to 37-36.
Then, after the Warriors held off the Nets for a few minutes, Brooklyn closed the second quarter with a 17-6 run, taking their first lead since the game's early moments on a Garnett jumper and then closing the half with a one-handed leaning 30-foot 3-pointer from Teletovic that banked into the basket at the buzzer to send the Nets into the break with a 59-52 lead.
But the Nets, as they have so often have this season, fell apart in the third quarter, getting outscored 24-15 and eventually giving up the lead on the final basket of the quarter when Barnes drained a corner 3-pointer to send the Warriors into the fourth with a 76-75 lead.
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