Nets get confidence boost with rout of Cavaliers

CLEVELAND — The Nets had been suffering a crisis of confidence, folding up their tent at every sight of trouble.

Sunday against the Cavaliers, they finally showed the backbone and fortitude interim coach Kevin Ollie had been begging for.

Brooklyn handily trounced the Cavaliers 120-101 before a sellout crowd of 19,432 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

And the contrast was nowhere near as close as the final score would indicate, the Nets outscoring the home team 44-29 in the third to build a 26-point lead in the fourth.

It tied the most points Brooklyn has scored in any quarter this season, and broke a skid in which they had played uninspired desultory basketball.

Cam Thomas had 29 points, seven rebounds and five assists in his second game back from an ankle injury. Mikal Bridges added 25, and got a rare rest, logging 35 minutes but allowed to sit late in a blowout.

The Nets shot 53.2 percent overall and 18 of 35 from deep, including long heat-check bombs from Thomas and Dennis Schroder (17 points, eight assists) in that explosive third.

The Nets didn’t have to face All-Star Donovan Mitchell or Evan Mobley — and they won’t much care. They improved to 26-39, and closed within four games of Atlanta for the final play-in spot in the Eastern Conference.

The Nets led by as much as 12 in the first half, at 46-34.

A Nic Claxton dunk put Brooklyn up 50-41, and that was still the score when Ollie lost a challenge with 3:18 left in the half.

Seven seconds later, a Jarrett Allen hook shot sparked a 10-2 Cavs run to close the half. And the Nets lost the lead altogether early in the third.

But what made this one different is they actually responded.

Trailing 60-57 after a 3-pointer by ex-Net Caris LeVert, Brooklyn immediately answered back with its own 10-2 run.

And locked in a 67-all tie after LeVert found Isaac Okoro for a 3-pointer, the Nets blew it open for good with a barrage from behind the arc — and an 18-6 run that essentially put the game away.

Bridges got a friendly shooter’s bounce on a 3, and Dorian Finney-Smith followed with one of his own from Thomas on the fast break.

By the time Schroder drained a 40-footer — his celebration reminiscent of Jamaican sprint icon Usain Bolt — Brooklyn led 85-73 with 3:22 left in the third.

Thomas followed with a highlight of his own, getting the ball with 4.9 seconds left in the period and pushing it, beating the buzzer with a 37-footer. It gave the Nets a 96-80 lead through three.

They padded another 10 points onto that cushion in the fourth, ahead 116-90 with just five minutes to play. The Nets held Cleveland at arm’s length the rest of the way.