‘Huge man, huge’ says Kevin Garnett as reeling Brooklyn dig out a win

The star-studded Nets took a step back to respectability on Tuesday night after a nightmarish start with a 102-100 win over the division-leading Toronto Raptors.

Kevin Garnett had 12 points for Brooklyn on Tuesday as the Nets improved to 4-10. Tom Szczerbowski / USA Today Sports

TORONTO, Canada // Hey, a win is a win.

“No matter how pretty it was, we pulled it out,” Nets guard Joe Johnson said.

Andray Blatche scored 24 points, Johnson had 21 and Brooklyn snapped a five-game losing streak, beating the Toronto Raptors 102-100 on Tuesday night.

Paul Pierce scored 16 points and Kevin Garnett had 12 as the Nets won for the first time since beating Phoenix on November 15.

“Huge, man, huge,” Garnett said when asked about the importance of the victory. “We’ve been struggling.”

Brooklyn won for just the third time in their past nine games in Canada, getting the victory despite playing without guard Deron Williams and center Brook Lopez, both of whom are sidelined with left ankle injuries.

DeMar DeRozan scored 27 points and Kyle Lowry had 21 for the Raptors, whose two-game winning streak was snapped.

“They just out-toughed us a little bit,” Lowry said. “They’re experienced inside and they roughed us up.”

The Nets were up 101-86 with 5:22 left but nearly coughed up the lead. Rudy Gay’s 3-pointer with 23 seconds left cut it to 101-100 before Shaun Livingston made 1 of 2 from the line with 11 seconds remaining, missing his second attempt.

After a Raptors timeout, Toronto’s Amir Johnson missed a potential go-ahead 3-pointer from the corner with one second left, and Steve Novak was unable to tip in Johnson’s rebound as the Nets held on.

“That last three minutes was almost a disaster,” Pierce said. “Fortunately we built such a big lead. If it was any closer, we would have lost tonight.”

An anxious Nets coach Jason Kidd covered his face with his hands as Novak’s tip went wide and the final buzzer sounded.

“Those guys in that locker room finally said they’d had enough,” Kidd said. “There’s a bunch of guys in there with pride and they understood what they had to do tonight.”

DeRozan acknowledged that Toronto weren’t able to do what they had planned on the final play, with Gay forced to kick the ball out to Johnson as Garnett closed in.

“It was an isolation for Rudy but they loaded in,” DeRozan said. “He (Gay) made the right decision. Amir was open and that’s a three he can make.”

Gay made just 3-of-12 field-goal attempts and finished with nine points and a game-high seven turnovers.

Pierce credited a positive outlook among the Nets players for ending their ugly losing streak.

“The difference was in our attitude,” Pierce said. “There was an attitude adjustment among the players. We’re just tired of getting pushed around. This team has a lot of pride, a no-give-up type attitude and guys were really feeling it. Some locker rooms break apart when you go on losing streaks, but I think it’s bringing us closer together.”

Brooklyn won’t have much time to sit back and enjoy the win. They host the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday.

“It was great to get a win tonight,” Joe Johnson said. “We’ll put this game behind us and move on to the Lakers. We know we’re going to have a tough one tomorrow at home.”

The Nets were also without two top reserves, guard Jason Terry (left knee) and forward Andrei Kirilenko (back).

OTHER TUESDAY RESULTS

Warriors 102, Pelicans 101

Klay Thompson had 22 points and Jermaine O’Neal had 18, including a key put-back with 2:08 left, lifting the Golden State Warriors to a victory over the New Orleans Pelicans.

Warriors guard Stephen Curry had seven of his 16 points in the fourth quarter and he added nine assists and eight rebounds.

Golden State (9-6) blew a 15-point lead but still managed to snap a three-game losing streak.

The Pelicans (6-8) were led by forward Ryan Anderson’s 21 points, but guard Eric Gordon missed a three-pointer from the left baseline in the final seconds.

Wizards 116, Lakers 111

John Wall scored 13 of his 31 points in the fourth quarter and Nene added a career-high 30 as Washington snapped Los Angeles’ three-game winning streak.

Martell Webster also had 20 for the Wizards (6-8) who have won four of five games.

Jordan Farmar made 9-of-11 shots and finished with 22 points for Los Angeles (7-8), who had seven players score in double figures.

The Lakers led 108-107 with 1:54 remaining but Wall’s jumper 20 seconds later put the Wizards in front for good and started a 6-0 spurt.

Earlier in the day, the Wizards announced leading scorer Bradley Beal has been diagnosed with a stress injury in his right fibula and will miss at least two weeks.

Magic 109, Hawks 92

E’Twaun Moore’s nine-point, third-quarter binge helped the Orlando Magic overcome a 12-point deficit to beat the Atlanta Hawks.

With the win, the Magic broke an 11-game, head-to-head losing streak against their Eastern Conference rival.

Moore, a second-year player, helped Orlando out-score Atlanta 36-20 in the third quarter and take over momentum.

Arron Afflalo led the Magic (5-9) with 26 points.

Atlanta (8-7) lost back-to-back games for the first time under first-year coach Mike Budenholzer. Tuesday’s game ended with the Hawks’ biggest losing margin of the season.