Somebody’s losing skid had to get broken. And fortunately for the Nets, they found a team worse than they are.
Brooklyn beat the shell of the Raptors, 98-88, before 18,376 at Scotiabank Arena, this time finally turning the tables by playing strong to the end.
After several poor finishes in their season-long six-game losing streak, the Nets actually played well in crunch time behind Dennis Schroder and Trendon Watford.
Schroder had 19 points, seven assists and five rebounds to help the Nets beat his old team, from which he came over at the trade deadline in exchange for the since-waived Spencer Dinwiddie.
And Watford had a season-high 19 points and seven boards off the bench.
Trailing 73-70 early in the fourth quarter, Brooklyn mounted a 12-2 run to go ahead for good.
After Watford hit one of two from the foul line, his 3-pointer gave the Nets a 74-73 lead that they would never surrender. Mikal Bridges’ floating bank shot capped the spurt and gave the Nets a seven-point edge.
“It was big,” said Watford. “It was big like I said, [interim head coach Kevin Ollie] called some good sets and got the guy involved in the action that we wanted to get, and I think we made some good plays out of that. And that’s what we were able to take off late.”
Still clinging to an 84-81 lead with 3:40 remaining, Brooklyn reeled off 10 unanswered points. Schroder found Nic Claxton for a dunk, then scored on a midrange pull-up and added a driving finger roll.
Claxton’s tip-in padded it to 94-81 with just over a minute left.
Toronto (23-49) has lost 11 straight and is a shorthanded shell of itself, missing Scottie Barnes (hand), Jakob Poeltl (finger), RJ Barrett (personal), Immanuel Quickley (personal) and Jontay Porter.
But the Nets won’t care. Already missing Cam Johnson and Dennis Smith Jr., and with leading scorer Cam Thomas a late scratch, they had their own worries.
Claxton (nine points, 16 boards) and rookie Noah Clowney (seven points, six boards, solid defense) took advantage inside. It compensated for an off night from Mikal Bridges, who had just 13 points on 5 of 15 shooting.
“We’ve been preaching it; just picking our brothers up when they’re down,” Watford said. “Mikal I know he didn’t have the game that he wanted to but we’ve just got to pick him up. Other players got to pick him up and I think we did that. And just got stops on the other end. Regardless of if we can make shots, we knew we had to get stops to win this game.”
