The Nets needed a gut-check after Monday’s humiliating loss.
One night later, they showed their guts were just fine.
Brooklyn pulled out a come-from-behind 112-107 victory over Philadelphia before a crowd of 17,086 at Barclays Center.
Granted, the 76ers didn’t have Joel Embiid or Tyrese Maxey, but the Grizzlies had been missing their top five players on Monday and the Nets still lost to them.
And Brooklyn, which had come in a horrid 2-7 on the tail end of back-to-backs this season, was trailing by 14 in this one.
That is, before storming back with an 11-0 fourth-quarter run for a must-have win.
Dennis Schroder had 20 points and eight assists, Dorian Finney-Smith added 20 points and eight boards, and Brooklyn shot 58.8 percent in the fateful final period.
And when it was over, the Nets (25-37) stayed 2 ½ games behind Atlanta for the final play-in spot in the Eastern Conference.
The Hawks ran out to a huge early lead in the Garden and held on for a 116-100 win.
After falling behind early and trailing by eight with just 8:24 to play, their movement got sharper, their defense got tougher.
And thanks to 11 unanswered points and a late-game defensive stand, they got the victory.
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Kelly Oubre Jr. had a game-high 30 for short-handed Philadelphia, which fell to 35-26.
Finney-Smith’s 3-pointer off a Dennis Smith Jr. feed gave the Nets an early 23-21 edge with 4:12 left in the first quarter.
Then the offense disappeared.
The Nets went scoreless for the next 5:36.
They went without a basket for the next 7:25.
Philadelphia reeled off 12 unanswered points, Kyle Lowry’s pull-up 3 leaving them in a 33-23 hole. They wouldn’t score until Schroder hit from the foul line 1:24 into the second quarter.
By the time rookie Jalen Wilson finally put back his own miss, they Nets had missed 13 straight and committed five turnovers.
The Nets were still down by 12 after KJ Martin — son of former Nets great Kenyon Martin — sailed in for a dunk his father would’ve been proud of. Down 43-31, the Nets reeled off nine unanswered to claw back into it.
Lonnie Walker (19 points) hit a midrange fadeaway to cap the 9-0 run, and pulled the Nets within 43-40 with 4:49 left in the half.
Schroder hit Mikal Bridges — who had another quiet night — for a 3-pointer to put the Nets up 56-55 with just 3.3 seconds left before intermission.
Brooklyn somehow went into the locker room down just one after having allowed 63.2 percent shooting in the first quarter. And opening the third with an 11-3 run saw them surge ahead by seven.
Schroder’s driving layup four minutes into the second half gave the Nets a 67-60 lead. But they couldn’t hold it.
Cruising along with a 71-66 cushion, Brooklyn allowed an 11-2 run.
Cam Payne’s 3-pointer left them down 77-73, and the deficit grew from there.
It reached 92-84 with 8:24 left before they rallied.
But 11 unanswered gave them the lead for good.
Granted, Smith and Schroder each made just one of two at the free-throw line, leaving them knotted at 92-all.
But Claxton threw down a dunk off a Schroder feed, got fouled and calmly converted the and-one for a 95-92 lead with 5:44 to play.
The Nets never trailed again.
After a Oubre hook, Smith swiped a Lowry pass intended for Tobias Harris, and went in for a breakaway dunk to make it 97-94 with 4:26 remaining.
Claxton (17 points, 10 boards) blocked Oubre and Finney-Smith’s 3-pointer on the other end gave them a 106-100 cushion with a minute and a half in regulation.