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The Brooklyn Nets secured a massive 110-96 home victory over the Boston Celtics on Saturday night.
Following the game, Nets All-Star D'Angelo Russell expressed the importance of every game from this point on until the end of the regular season:
“I told you, man, every one is going to be worth it,” D'Angelo Russell said, per ESPN. “We need it, scratching and clawing for every one of them.”
Russell knew that Brooklyn needed to get back on track, and he delivered. The former No. 2 overall pick led the Nets' second-half surge by registering 20 of his 29 points in the third quarter.
At some point in February, it almost seemed like the Nets were already a lock for to make their return to the playoffs. However, a brutal seven-game road trip put their postseason hopes in jeopardy. They went 2-5 over that rough patch, losing the first three and last two.
One of their two wins over that stretch was the massive come-from-behind victory they had over the Sacramento Kings, and they would have finished 1-6 had D'Angelo Russell not gone off for a career game that night.
Nonetheless, the Nets were able to stop the bleeding Saturday against the Celtics. Boston was without Kyrie Irving and Al Horford, and Brooklyn was able to take advantage.
The game was close in the first half, but the Nets used a big 33-22 third quarter thanks to Russell's 20 points in the quarter.
However, Brooklyn still isn't out of the woods yet. The Nets will still have to bleed for every victory from this point on. They are currently in seventh place out East, but are just one game above the ninth-seeded Orlando Magic.
Their last five scheduled opponents won't be a cakewalk either, with the first four coming against plus-.500 teams in the East: two against Milwaukee, one against Toronto, and one against Indiana. Moreover, the last one will most likely be a bloodbath against the Miami Heat, another team in the midst of the Eastern Conference playoff gauntlet.
