Pierce, Nets shoot past Cavaliers

For the Nets these days, there's no place like home.

After losing back-to-back overtime games on the road earlier this week, the Nets returned to Brooklyn on Friday night and did what they have been doing at Barclays Center for going on two months now: winning basketball games.

Thanks to 17 first-quarter points from Paul Pierce, the Nets jumped on top early and never looked back, never trailing as they pulled away to claim an easy 108-97 victory over the Cavaliers.

The win was the 12th in a row at home for the Nets (38-33), who are now 11-4 in March and haven't lost at home since they faced Oklahoma City on Jan. 31 — two days before the Seahawks won Super Bowl XLVIII. The Nets also managed to keep pace with the Atlantic Division-leading Raptors, who won at home against the Celtics to maintain their 2¹/₂ -game lead with 11 games remaining for Brooklyn.

The Nets, who were missing Kevin Garnett for a 15th straight game, got a big boost from his old friend early on. Pierce knocked down all four of his shots in the first quarter — all coming from behind the 3-point arc — to go along with a perfect 5-for-5 from the foul line to help Brooklyn jump out to an early 25-14 lead. Then, after the Cavaliers closed the quarter with a 14-5 run to tie the game at 29, the Nets opened the second with a 12-0 run that put them in the lead for good.

Cleveland managed to stick around, however, forcing the Nets into 17 turnovers that the Cavs converted into 20 points, along with a 14-4 advantage in second-chance points. The Cavs used a 13-4 run late in the third quarter to close to within 82-77 on an Alonzo Gee dunk.

But Marcus Thornton ended the third with a long 3-pointer — one of 14 the Nets hit on the night — and then opened the fourth with an 11-3 run that was capped by a Mirza Teletovic 3-pointer to make the score 96-80 with 7:45 left.

The Nets shot 55 percent from the field and 48 percent from 3-point range, while limiting the Cavaliers to 43 percent shooting overall.

Pierce finished with 22 points to lead the Nets, while Dion Waiters and Luol Deng each had 20 points to head Cleveland.

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