Nets Find Way To Finish This Time For Payback Win Over Hornets

Monday in the Garden, the Nets let a sorry fourth quarter spoil three solid ones.

But two nights later, they closed the deal.

This time the Nets held their poise and held on for a comfortable 114-104 victory over visiting Charlotte.

It was payback for a humbling season-opening loss against these same Hornets. And after a win in Indiana — and taking a lead into the fourth quarter on the road at the reigning NBA champion Knicks — there are signs of the Nets making strides.

“We were in the same position a couple nights ago in New York and fell apart in the fourth,” Michael Porter Jr. said. “So, that’s what good teams do, growing teams do, is they learn from their failure and try to not do that same thing again. So I was proud of everybody.”

Porter had 26 points and 10 rebounds, taking over late. Julius Randle scored 22 while they got solid play from the young point guard tandem of starter Nolan Traore (16 points, three steals, plus-13) and rookie Mikel Brown Jr. (career-high 18 points, four assists).

But most auspicious was the Nets’ fourth quarter offense. After imploding two nights earlier — when they coughed up a 25-5 run to open the final period, and shot 3-of-16 with seven turnovers — this time they looked like a cohesive unit.

The Nets (2-6) outscored the Hornets 34-24 in the fourth, shooting 51.2 percent and 6-of-11 from deep. And Porter — who had been scoreless in the fourth against the Knicks — had 13 points on 4-of-4 from behind the arc.

“Fourth quarter is winning time,” Porter said. “You can play a good three quarters of basketball; the fourth quarter’s a completely different game. You have to be more intentional with your cuts, your setups, the speed in which you play, your defensive intensity.

“In the fourth quarter, you’ve got to be better at communicating; you’ve got to be more disciplined; be more alert. Offensively, we were a lot more connected, and we had a lot of intention and speed with how we played. That’s what it takes in the fourth quarter in a close game. So if we can build off of that, that’ll be great.”

The Nets’ defense was stout from the start, forcing six straight misses and a turnover to open the game.

A Randle 3-pointer gave the Nets a 40-37 edge with 5:42 left in the half.

They surrendered it to an extended 20-7 Hornets run, falling behind by 10 on a Grayson Allen 3-pointer with a minute left in the first half.

The Nets were still down 59-50 a minute into the second.

But they promptly reeled off 11 unanswered to take the momentum and the lead.

Jordi Fernández switched up his rotation, partly because of need. With Noah Clowney forced out by right knee soreness, Fernández went to second-year forward Danny Wolf, and also replaced 6-8, 235 pound Chaney Johnson with guard Terance Mann. The extra ballhandling paid dividends.

Wolf (12 points, plus-17) capped the run on a 3-pointer off a Randle feed, giving the Nets a 61-59 edge.

Even after they coughed it up to fall behind 78-72, they seized it back with a 17-5 run that spanned the third and fourth quarters. Randle found Brown for a 3 that put the Nets ahead 89-83.

“We just came together in the fourth quarter, and we understood the assignment,” Brown said. “This has been the theme of we haven’t been finishing games and now we finished it.”

This time — unlike two nights earlier in the Garden — they held their poise. And held on for the victory.

“It shows that we definitely went back to the film. … [The coaches] told us how to win a game and we went out there and executed it,” Mann said. “This game could’ve very likely went how the game in the Garden went. We were in the same situation and we flipped the script.”