Nets halt Cavs' 4-game win streak, keep pace in East playoff race

The Cleveland Cavaliers rolled into the Barclays Center on Friday night as arguably the hottest team in the NBA. 

They were winners of four straight and eight of nine, including an overtime victory over the almost-as-hot San Antonio Spurs and complete blowouts over the Dallas Mavericks and, most recently, the Memphis Grizzlies. They'd played the Brooklyn Nets not 10 days earlier, and came away with a 25-point win. 

That game was in Cleveland, though, and in Brooklyn it was a different story. The Nets hung with the Cavs for three quarters, as the two teams passed the lead back and forth like a hot potato, before the home side finally pulled away in the fourth. 

As has been the case in the majority of Cleveland's losses this season, their inability to get stops proved their undoing. The Nets used an inside-out attack and sound ball movement to break down the Cavs' defense, and consistently turned their open looks on the perimeter into points. 

They scored 40 points in the paint, the bulk of which came courtesy of the red-hot Brook Lopez, and knocked down 39 percent of their 3-point attempts. Brooklyn's bench, in particular, came through, outscoring Cleveland's 54-20 behind big nights from Jarrett Jack, Alan Anderson, and rookie Bojan Bogdanovic. 

The Cavaliers were unable to get much from anyone outside their big three of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. The rest of their team combined for just 30 points on 13-of-33 shooting. 

It was a crucial win for the Nets, as it allowed them to keep pace in the race for the Eastern Conference's eighth and final playoff seed. They vaulted past the Indiana Pacers, who were idle, and the Charlotte Hornets, who lost in double-overtime to the Washington Wizards. They remain a half-game back of the Boston Celtics, who beat the New York Knicks to maintain their hold on eighth.