Nets use defense to dominate Hawks

ATLANTA — After getting humbled at home by the Hawks on Saturday, the Nets had openly called Monday’s rematch a must win. Then they went out and got it in style, with arguably their best defensive effort in years.

After a shaky first half, the Nets stormed out of the locker room in the second half. They choked the life out of the Hawks defensively, smothering them 110-90 before 12,056 at Philips Arena for their most lopsided win of the season.

“Very important. We feel like we let one get away at home, and we wanted to come in and play super hard. That gives us great momen- tum going into Mexico,” said Caris LeVert, who had team-highs of 17 points and seven assists off the bench. The Nets dished out a season-high 30 assists, but it was the defense that turned a halftime def icit into a 29-point lead.

“Just a good bounceback,” coach Kenny Atkinson said. “I said after last game they dominated us at every position. I was interested to see how our guys responded.”

The Nets responded to a 54-53 deficit at the break by coming out of the locker room with a 17-0 run over the first 5:43, harassing the Hawks into missing their first dozen shots. They held Atlanta to just 3-for-22 in the third quarter and only 36 points after the intermission, their best defensive second half since 2014-15.

After letting Dennis Schröder score 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting in the first half, the Nets (9-14) held him to just two points on 1-of-7 in the second.

“We knew we had him right where we wanted him,” LeVert said. “They were shooting the shots we wanted them to shoot. They were just making them.

“We stayed the course, stayed true to our system, and played great defense in the second half.”