NEW YORK – After spending five years with the Suns, Mikal Bridges moved to the Brooklyn Nets in February as part of the trade that sent Kevin Durant to Phoenix.
On Friday, the forward showed the Nets what he was made of, scoring 38 points and grabbing 10 rebounds as Brooklyn stunned the Boston Celtics 115-105 in their National Basketball Association clash.
His performance was the highlight of the night as the Nets rallied from a 28-point deficit to beat the Eastern Conference contenders on their home floor in the biggest comeback win of the NBA season.
“We just kept fighting,” Bridges said.
“We just kept fighting, we got stops and that was the biggest thing – defence and getting out in transition, but it all started with our defence.
“I think we kind of realised over a couple of games that offence wasn’t really our problem. I feel like our offence is pretty good. But our defence, we got stops and stayed together possession by possession. We just kept and stayed together.”
Cameron Johnson, celebrating his 27th birthday, added 20 points for Brooklyn (35-28), who have struggled to find form since the February trades that saw stars Durant and Kyrie Irving depart.
They had lost four straight, including a blowout loss to the New York Knicks on Wednesday and looked to be heading for another lopsided defeat when the Celtics took a 51-23 lead with 7min 23sec left in the second quarter.
The Nets then whittled the deficit to nine points at half-time and took the lead for the first time – and for good – with 6:11 left in the third quarter.
The comeback eclipsed the Lakers’ fightback from a 27-point deficit in a victory over Dallas in February.
Jaylen Brown led the Celtics with 35 points. Jayson Tatum, celebrating his 25th birthday, added 22 points with 13 rebounds but the Celtics (45-19) have lost two of their last three and slipped a bit further behind the Milwaukee Bucks (45-17) atop the East.
“We got off to a really good start playing the right way and we just took the foot off the gas and it cost us. You can’t be comfortable,” said Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla.
Elsewhere, Julius Randle scored 43 points, draining the game-winning three-pointer with 1.7 seconds remaining to lift the New York Knicks to an eighth straight win, 122-120 over the Heat in Miami. Jalen Brunson added 25 points for the surging Knicks.
Jimmy Butler scored 33 points for Miami and Tyler Herro added 29. Herro’s lay-up put the Heat ahead by one with 23.1sec left to play. But Randle responded, coming up with the game-winner after nearly having the ball poked away by Butler.
In Chicago, Devin Booker drilled six three-pointers on the way to 35 points to lead the Suns to a 125-104 victory over the Bulls.
Durant, playing his second game as a Sun, scored 20 points to help Phoenix withstand a 31-point performance from Chicago’s DeMar DeRozan. AFP
