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CHICAGO — In their first two games of the season, the Nets found gut-wrenching ways to blow late leads. Now they’re figuring out how to turn the tables.
Brooklyn earned its third straight win — all on the road — with a come-from-behind 109-107 victory over the Bulls in front of 20,645 at United Center on Friday night.
The Nets used an 8-0 run early in the fourth — largely powered by the bench — to reverse a four-point hole and take a lead.
And they used a defensive stand to force a Zach LaVine miss at the end to hold onto it for their East Group C opener in the In-Season Tournament.
“Just winning, having games winning at the end gives you confidence in the whole locker room that knows when stuff gets tight that we’re going to lock in and get a win,” said Mikal Bridges, who had six of his 20 points in the fourth quarter. “So just winning games, tight games, it helps a lot.”
It was their first In-Season Tournament game, and it’s one that the Nets (3-2) likely wouldn’t have won earlier in the season.
The fact they did — minus two starters, trailing early in the fourth — shows they’re growing by the night.
“Overall, for that to be our team identity — that collectively we can get it done on the road as a group — impressive,” said coach Jacque Vaughn, whose team had blown big leads in the final minutes of its first two games.
“I told them we’ve grown from Game 1 to Game 5. It’s good to see our guys come together. … We turned them over more than we turned the rock over to a team that’s top three in the league at turning people over. So the focus, concentration level, was there for our group, and they got rewarded for it.”
Dorian Finney-Smith had 16 of his 21 points in the first half, starting again for injured Nic Claxton.
The 6-foot-7, 220-pound Finney-Smith gave up 5 inches and 40 pounds to Nikola Vucevic, but went 5-for-9 from deep, including a big make with 4:16 left.
“I’m just trying to run, keep big fella moving. That was my advantage. Him back to the basket, that’s his advantage. So just try to know play fast,” Finney-Smith said.
“We just want every win we can get. We aren’t one of them teams that can wait around, try to pick it up late in the year. We need every win we can get.”
The Nets got two guards back off the injured list. Spencer Dinwiddie — returning from an ankle sprain — had 10 points and nine assists, seven in the first quarter alone. And Dennis Smith Jr. (hip) had all seven of his points in the fourth quarter.
“I just try to compete and do whatever I can help the team,” Smith told The Post. “Spencer really was the one who got me going, to be honest. So shout out to Spence for that. A couple of defensive plays, basically having good possessions.”
Brooklyn had jumped out of the gates with an 11-5 lead on a Bridges layup, and padded it to 45-35 on a Lonnie Walker IV dunk.
The Nets promptly coughed up 14 unanswered points, going down by four on Vucevic’s only basket of the half. It was 58-53 after a DeMar DeRozan 3.
The Bulls star hit two free throws to leave the Nets in an 86-82 hole. But they reeled off an 8-0 run — largely powered by the bench — to reverse that deficit.
Smith set up a bucket by Walker to cap the run, then sank a 3 off a Bridges feed to make it 93-88 with 7:40 to play.
They never trailed again.
Even after Chicago briefly knotted it at 93-all, Bridges’ 3 put the Nets ahead for good.
Dinwiddie and Royce O’Neale forced LaVine into a missed runner with 14.3 seconds left.
Bridges failed to ice it at the line, making just one of two.
But Ben Simmons wisely fouled LaVine before he could attempt a potential tying 3.
LaVine made the first free throw, missed the second and got his own offensive rebound.
But the Nets harassed him into a 22-foot miss at the buzzer, and Simmons snatched the all-important rebound.
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