Curry finished with 27 points, his most since coming from Philadelphia last month in the trade headlined by James Harden and Ben Simmons.
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Seth Curry came back and some of the burden on Kevin Durant went away. Durant scored 38 points, Curry returned to the lineup with seven 3-pointers in his best game as a Net, and Brooklyn rallied to beat the Portland Trail Blazers 128-123 on Friday night.
Curry finished with 27 points, his most since coming from Philadelphia last month in the trade headlined by James Harden and Ben Simmons. Curry had missed the previous three games with left ankle soreness and with Kyrie Irving ineligible to play at home, Dallas took advantage of that Wednesday by constantly sending second defenders at Durant.
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”You shouldn’t be able to run two or three guys at a player the entire game without having to pay for it,” Curry said, ”so I think we did a good job of taking advantage of it tonight.”
Andre Drummond and Bruce Brown each added 17 points for the Nets. They bounced back from their loss at the buzzer to the Mavericks and won for the fifth time in six games.
Josh Hart scored 25 points for the Trail Blazers, who led by 18 early in the second half but couldn’t hold on and lost their third straight. Brandon Williams added 24 points.
Durant shot 11 for 15 from the field and added six rebounds and six assists, but the decisive stretch came when he was on the bench to begin the fourth quarter. The Nets opened with a 10-0 spurt, featuring two 3-pointers by Curry, to turn a tie game into a 111-101 lead.
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”We just couldn’t get a basket at the start of the fourth quarter,” Blazers coach Chauncey Billups said. ”They go on that 10-0 run I think and that really hurt us.”
Playing again without Irving at home, the Nets allowed the Blazers to make nine of first 12 shots, but recovered for a 34-33 lead after one behind 13 points from Durant. Portland then shot 18 for 25 (72%) in a 42-point second quarter. Ben McLemore’s 3-pointer made it 75-62 at the break.
Portland extended the lead to 82-64 with a good start to the third. The Nets charged back by hitting 13 of 18 shots in the third, outscoring the Blazers 39-26 to even it at 101 heading to the fourth.
