NEW YORK _ For three quarters, the Nets seemed stuck in neutral against the lowly Cavs, but when the fourth quarter began, they found the desperation they need to fuel a serious playoff push. The Nets trailed by eight points late in the third period, but Spencer Dinwiddie scored 19 of his 28 points after that point to lead the charge down the stretch of a 113-107 victory Wednesday night at Barclays Center.
After trailing by as much as eight points in the third period, the Nets opened the final quarter with a 7-0 burst, including five straight points from LeVert, to regain an 87-85 lead and breathe new life into the game. Former Net Nik Stauskas entered and hit a corner 3 for a short-lived one-point Cavs lead, but then Dinwiddie scored 12 points and had two assists in a 22-5 surge to push the Nets' lead to 110-94 with 3:26 left.
The Cavs managed to cut that margin to five points in the final seconds, but that was as close as they got. The Nets' win kept them in sixth place in the Eastern Conference just ahead of the Pistons.
In addition to Dinwiddie's heroics, the Nets (34-33) got 25 points from D'Angelo Russell, who came into the game averaging 25 points against the Cavs, his highest against any opponent. Jarrett Allen added 15 points and 11 rebounds, and Caris LeVert chipped in 14 points.
The Cavs (16-49) got 24 points and 16 rebounds from Kevin Love, 22 points from David Nwaba and 17 points and 10 rebounds from Larry Nance Jr. But they were dominated in the paint by the Nets, 58-38 and were held to 40.2 shooting from the field.
The Nets seemed to find some answers in Monday's 39-point blowout of the Mavericks thanks to lineup changes by coach Kenny Atkinson that moved Rodions Kurucs and Allen Crabbe to the starting lineup and shifted Caris LeVert to the second unit along with injured Treveon Graham (back soreness), who sat out his second straight game. Atkinson liked what he saw but was careful to note it was just one game.
"I think it was kind of the perfect medicine for where we were," Atkinson said of the three-game losing streak that preceded it. "sometimes, it's the way you do it, too. It wasn't a nail-biter. We put our stamp on the game from a physicality, defensive activity standpoint. Can you do it more often than the other team? Can you do it for longer periods?"
Those were key questions against the Cavs, who came in with a poor record but were 4-2 since losing in triple overtime to the Nets in the final game before the All-Star break. The Nets broke on top with an extended 19-7 run that spanned the first and second quarters to give them a 37-22 lead. Allen had six points in that stretch and got a five-point boost from Dinwiddie.
But even though the Cavs could be playing out the string, they responded with a terrific 22-7 run to tie the game at 44. Nwaba scored nine of his 14 first-half points off the bench in the stretch, and Clarkson, who hurt the Nets in their last meeting in Cleveland, added seven. The Nets managed to regain a 55-50 edge at halftime, but it seemed shaky after they shot 5-of-20 from 3 in the opening half.
The Nets' Russell hit a couple early 3s to expand their lead to nine in the third quarter, but that's when Love began to assert himself. The former All-Star scored 13 points, including eight from the foul line, in a 27-10 run that put the Cavs in front, 79-71, midway through the third period. The Nets cut their deficit to 85-80 after three quarters but hardly resembled the same team that ran roughshod over the Mavericks.
