The Nets are making a last stand.
Maybe they should start treating every game like that.
As the season passed quickly, they finally played as a team.
The team knew it would likely need to win two back-to-back games against the Hawks to maintain any glimmer of hope of making it to the play-in tournament. A team whose new interim coach had publicly criticized the players.
And Cam Johnson played as if he knew his minutes were dwindling earlier and was determined to reclaim the role he had just lost.
The Nets picked apart the red-hot Hawks from the start and never relented, going on a 124-97 rout Thursday night at Barclays Center before the two teams clashed again on Saturday.
It’s something coach Kevin Ollie has been begging his team to prove, and it’s something the Nets have been unrecognizable in producing in recent weeks.
Their ambition to sneak into the final play-in spot would have been difficult to take seriously had they lost, but they ended up being left on life support.
The Nets entered Thursday as the No. 10 seed in the East, four games behind the Hawks, but will enter Saturday’s rematch three games behind the final play-in spot with a chance to cut it down to two games remaining.
Johnson, who returned to the starting lineup for the second straight game due to injuries to Cam Thomas and Ben Simmons, paced the Nets all night, hitting 10-of-15 from the field and a season-high with seven blistering shots. He scored 29 points. He had 11 points from 3-point shooting.
The Nets desperately needed that — another scoring punch around Mikal Bridges — and Johnson himself needed it, too.
Even after being relegated to the bench in his first three games, he persevered and played as if he had a chipped shoulder.
He brought the 17,284 fans in attendance to their feet in the final minutes of the first quarter, splitting two defenders and delivering a powerful dunk that extended the Nets’ lead to 34-16.
The Nets spent the morning and all before the game talking about O’Ree’s non-negotiables, effort and turnovers, and the need to improve on both.
They certainly accomplished that task and looked to be in a different gear than the Hawks, but had just nine turnovers.
The Hawks, playing their third game without Trae Young, who underwent hand surgery to repair a torn ligament in his left pinky finger, didn’t feel their superstar’s absence until Thursday.
They won the first two games without Young, defeating the Magic and Jazz by 17 and 27 points, respectively. Going back even further, the Hawks had won eight of 13 games entering Thursday.
The win marked O’Ree’s first home win since taking over, and the Nets improved to 2-3 overall under his guidance.
The Hawks chipped away at the Nets’ lead in the second quarter, cutting the lead to just six points at halftime. But Johnson made a layup and a pull-up 3-pointer within the first three minutes of the second half, extending the Nets’ lead to 13 points.
Johnson scored six more points in the third quarter, and the Nets held a 19-point lead entering the fourth before going on a 5-0 run to start the final frame.
It was another mostly quiet night for Bridges, who finished with 15 points on 5-of-14 shooting from the field. His efficiency was a step in the right direction after he had severe shooting troubles on the Nets’ road trip, finishing with a team-best plus-30 on the court.
Dennis Schroder had 23 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. He made 5 of 7 3-point shots, tied for the most this season.
Things were looking great for the Nets as Dayron Sharpe, who entered the game having only made two 3-pointers all season, hit back-to-back 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to extend their lead to 115-84.
For the first time in a while, Nets players expressed a wide range of emotions. There were a variety of sounds coming from the crowd at Barclays Center. Olly was asked a variety of questions.
As Captain Picard famously uttered while fighting the Borg, the Nets’ season needed to draw a line here. Could you draw it again on Saturday?
