NEW YORK -- Joe Johnson hasn’t missed the playoffs since 2006 -- and he doesn’t intend for that streak to end this season.
“I think everybody in this locker room understands that we’re at a point now where it’s time to either put up or shut up,” Johnson told ESPN.com after the surging Brooklyn Nets defeated LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers 106-98 on Friday night at Barclays Center to secure their sixth win in their past eight games.
“We just gotta do whatever we can to get into the postseason.”
Johnson did his part, contributing 20 points, a season-high nine assists and five rebounds in 38 minutes, and the Nets (31-40 overall, 13-20 home, 9-28 vs. .500 or better teams) remained a half game behind the Boston Celtics (32-40), who beat the lowly New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, in the race for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
“We knew we were playing against a team that very badly needed to win,” Cavaliers coach David Blatt said. “We had to play at a level that was appropriate to that. We just didn’t reach that level today and Brooklyn, for their purposes, did.”
Johnson had scored just 11 points in his previous two games on 5-for-20 shooting. The 33-year-old veteran has been plagued by tendinitis basically all season.
“You just play through it,” Johnson said. “Some days are better than others. It’s a grind. You just have to play.”
Johnson wasn’t the only Net who played well. It was a collective team effort. Brook Lopez had 20 points and nine rebounds. The bench -- led Bojan Bogdanovic (18), Jarrett Jack (16) and Alan Anderson (13) -- chipped in 54 points. With Thaddeus Young (knee strain) out, Earl Clark -- signed to a 10-day contract in the morning -- added seven points in 11 minutes.
James finished with 24 points, nine assists, five rebounds and five steals -- but he scored just eight points after halftime. In the fourth quarter, the Nets held the Cavaliers to 35.3 percent shooting while outscoring them 27-19.
“He’s the face of this league and he’s a great player and when you’re playing against him, you gotta make him be great,” Johnson said of James. “You can’t double-team him the whole game and give those other guys great looks and they explode for 15, 20 points. That’s how you get beat."
A struggling Deron Williams (five points, five rebounds, five assists, five turnovers) sat the entire final period. His teammates picked him up, exploiting Cleveland’s smaller defenders in halfcourt sets while making life difficult on the Cavs in transition. In fact, Cleveland was called for five offensive fouls on the evening.
“They played a very good game,” James said. “I think they were in attack mode. We didn’t control dribble-penetration enough. They put us in a lot of pick-and-rolls and they played small and a lot of their guys are dual threats -- they were shooting the 3 and they also beat us off the dribble. So, we didn’t do a good job of keeping them out of the paint.
“I just sense a team that’s been playing for each other for a while now and they just know how to play. We just happened to get them on a good night.”
With the Nets up 98-93, 2:56 remaining and less than five seconds left on the shot clock, Johnson hit a long 3-pointer from just inside the timeline to seal the surprising victory.
“It felt good,” Johnson said with a laugh. “I didn’t know if it was going in, but it felt good.”
The Nets have had an up-and-down season. On March 11, they fell 14 games under .500. It looked like they were done. Well, they play in the East, and no, they aren’t done. Not yet, anyway.
Brooklyn is looking to become the first team since the 2012-13 Chicago Bulls to make the playoffs despite not ever having a winning streak longer than three games.
It’s why you can’t make any bold proclamations that they’ve turned the corner. They’ve never been able to.
But since beating Philadelphia on March 14, the Nets are shooting 46.7 percent from the field and averaging 106 points per game. Granted, a 25-point loss in Cleveland and a 19-point home loss to Boston happened during this stretch. No need to dwell on that, though.
“Paying attention to detail, coming out and just executing the game plan and playing hard,” Johnson replied when asked about the team’s recent upswing. “Having that hustle and heart for 48 minutes, that’s probably been the biggest key.”
Johnson doesn’t want the season to end on April 15. He wants more. The Nets have 11 games to earn themselves a playoff berth and a fresh slate.
“It would mean a lot for us because it would be a new start, and in the postseason, anything is possible,” Johnson said. “That’s our main goal right now, but we’ve gotta take it one game at a time.”