Nets upend Rockets for 1st win of season

The Brooklyn Nets finally got off the schneid Wednesday night, riding a red-hot Bojan Bogdanovic to a 106-98 win over the Houston Rockets, improving to 1-7 on the season.

The Rockets led for the majority of the second half, but the Nets outscored them 27-15 in the fourth quarter, as Houston went arctic from long range. As they watched their lead slip away, the Rockets started chucking and clanking.

They hoisted 10 threes in the fourth, connecting on just one. They were 8-of-34 (23.5 percent) from the distance, shooting almost thrice as many 3-balls as free throws (12).

Meanwhile, the Nets got contributions up and down the lineup, mostly from unexpected places, with big buckets down the stretch coming from Jarrett Jack, Shane Larkin, Thomas Robinson, Andrea Bargnani, and, of course, Bogdanovic.

The second-year swingman came off the bench to drop a team-high 22 points (on 10-of-20 shooting), grab nine rebounds, dish three assists, and knock down a back-breaking triple to put the Nets up six with 90 seconds to play.

Get a win, Bogie!

Larkin was arguably just as big, spelling Jack at point guard with 15 points, eight rebounds, two assists, and a game-high plus-24 rating in just 23 minutes. All told, the Nets' bench outscored the Rockets' 56-14.

For Houston, it was a disconcerting return to early-season form, when they looked completely discombobulated and dropped their first three games by 20 points each.

Though they turned things around and won four straight after that, the ugly loss to the Nets has head coach Kevin McHale concerned.

"I'm worried about our team right now," he said after the game. "Our defense ... way too many individual breakdowns. Way too many mistakes."

The Rockets have a day to get things straightened out, before a tough back-to-back in the altitude in Denver and back home against the Dallas Mavericks.