NEW YORK — Mikal Bridges scored 38 points and the Brooklyn Nets beat the Atlanta Hawks for the second straight game, 114-102 on Saturday.
Cam Johnson scored 23 points for the Nets, who improved to 3-3 under interim coach Kevin Ollie and moved to within two games of the Hawks for 10th place in the Eastern Conference and last place of the play-in tournament.
“We need to get as many wins as we can now,” Johnson said. “Our backs are against the wall, so it’s up to us to dig ourselves out of this hole.”
Dennis Schroder had 14 points and eight assists, and Nic Claxton had 12 points and 13 rebounds for Brooklyn, which won for the third time in its last four games. That included a 124-97 win over the Hawks on Thursday in the first game of the two-game series.
“These are two important matches; Obviously now the rest of these games are extremely important as well,” Bridges said. “We know we needed these two big wins, and it just shows the fight and we need to keep it up throughout the season.”
Dejounte Murray had 20 points, 11 assists and six rebounds for the Hawks. Saddiq Bey scored 23 points and Clint Capela had 11 points and 10 rebounds, but Atlanta fell for the fifth time in its last seven games and lost the season series to the Nets for the seventh straight season.
“They took their physicality up a notch, and that made it harder for us to break down the paint,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “(Brooklyn) is a team with intense size and athleticism throughout its lineup, and we just have to be better.”
Bridges has scored at least 30 points in three of four games this season.
After trailing most of the first half, Brooklyn took over in the second half on defense. Atlanta made just 13 of 42 field goals, and the Nets held the Hawks to just 40 points in the second half while scoring 13 points off nine turnovers over the final 24 minutes.
“When you’re not scoring, you’re playing defense in transition, and it gets tough,” Snyder said. “Obviously they have shooters too.”
The run began in the third quarter, when Brooklyn outscored Atlanta 30-18 and held the Hawks to 6 of 24 shooting (25%). Bridges scored 12 points in the period and Brooklyn led 90-80 after three.
“They did a good job switching and being physical,” Bey said. “We just have to be better.”
After allowing 34 points in the first quarter in Brooklyn’s wire-to-wire victory on Thursday, the Hawks led all but the first 1:14 of the first half on Saturday. Led by Bey’s 14 points in the first half, Atlanta shot 53.3 percent from the field and took a 13-point advantage in the first quarter.
“We knew they were going to come out with some juice today, some energy,” Johnson said. “They threw the first punch, but there was a lot of play, that’s what we were saying.”
Brooklyn shot just 25.9% in the first quarter, but came back strong with 39 second quarter points and eight 3-pointers, tying a franchise record for most 3s made in a quarter without a miss . Bridges had 20 points in the first half, helping Brooklyn trail by just two at halftime.
“Just an intensity,” Bridges said when asked what changed after the first quarter. “It was a pretty bad first quarter for me, but we kept fighting. We looked up and we were playing pretty bad, and we were only down by seven points, so we said ‘stay the course’…and we did.
FOLLOWING
Hawks: Visit New York on Tuesday.
Nets: Host Memphis on Monday.
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