Nets at Magic
The Brooklyn Nets are trying to win their first road game in over a month and are heading out on a three-game trip with some momentum after knocking off the Los Angeles Lakers at home on Wednesday. The Nets will try to take advantage of the struggling Orlando Magic when they start their trip in Florida on Friday.
Brooklyn dropped back-to-back road games at San Antonio and Houston in its previous two contests but locked down on defense in the fourth quarter on Wednesday to turn away the struggling Lakers. "I really liked our defense in the fourth quarter," Nets coach Kenny Atkinson told reporters. "If we're going to take a step, that's where we need to take a step, defensively." The Magic dropped four of the last five games and are allowing an average of 116 in that span after dropping a 113-108 decision to the Los Angeles Clippers at home on Wednesday on the heels of a win in Atlanta the previous night. "We want to win, but we're not going to use the travel and coming back (home) as an excuse," forward Jeff Green told reporters. "Everybody has to (travel) in the NBA, so we've just got to find the way the next time we're coming back to win. The good thing about the NBA is we play Friday."
TV: 7 p.m. ET, YES (Brooklyn), FSN Florida (Orlando)
ABOUT THE NETS (7-17): Point guard Jeremy Lin's return lasted all of one game before back tightness knocked him out of the lineup again on Wednesday. The veteran signed a three-year, $36 million deal in the offseason to become Brooklyn's point guard and sat out 17 straight games with a hamstring injury before returning with 20 solid minutes on Monday, only to be a late scratch Wednesday due to back tightness. "I really don't know," Atkinson told reporters about Lin's availability for Friday. "Who knows how these things happen. We'll evaluate him (Thursday)."
ABOUT THE MAGIC (11-16): The defense is a work in progress, but Orlando was happy with some of the strides it took offensively in the back-to-back. "We're coming (along) in that regard and we're growing with 29 more assists and eight turnovers against the third-ranked defense in the league," Magic coach Frank Vogel told reporters after Wednesday's setback. "That's wat we did (Tuesday) night against the second-ranked defense in the league (Atlanta). We're improving on the offensive end and I'm encouraged by that." The star offensively on Wednesday was power forward Aaron Gordon, who scored 33 points on 13-of-21 shooting after averaging 8.2 points in the previous five games.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Green is averaging 17.3 points in the last three games after totaling six points in the previous two games.
2. Brooklyn PF Trevor Booker is averaging 12 rebounds in the last five games after pulling down 18 on Wednesday.
3. Orlando swept the four-game series last season.