With a few different dominating storylines — how will the Nets bounce back from their opening-night defeat? Will Mason Plumlee compete with Andre Drummond? Will anyone show up to the arena to watch the game? — the Brooklyn Nets ended up falling back on their oldest and most entertaining storyline: Joe Marcus Johnson dominating a fourth quarter with the team’s back against the wall and leading the team to victory.
There were some concerns, most notably letting a 15-point lead slide into nothing. But the offense ran much more crisply for 48 minutes than it did Wednesday night, and the Nets locked up in the final minutes as the Detroit Pistons seemingly couldn’t run a set, hitting just one field goal in the final ten minutes.
Don’t forget that last part. Joe Johnson’s explosion means nothing if the Nets don’t get stops. They did, time and time again down the stretch, and it led to an instantly easy victory.
