Before the Nets played Sunday’s game, head coach Jacque Vaughn said he wanted the struggling Mikal Bridges to keep shooting — especially from 3-point range.
Bridges must have taken Vaughn’s message to heart and even though he continued to shoot poorly from long range, he gave the Nets enough offense to avoid what would have been an ugly loss at home to the Wizards.
In a 102-94 win at Barclays Center, Bridges scored a game-high 27 points (on 11 of 29 shooting from the floor and 2 of 14 from 3-point range) and took over down the stretch, as the Nets used a late 15-0 run to turn a five-point deficit into a win.
Bridges’ performance — he also added 13 rebounds — helped make up for the absence of Ben Simmons, who missed his third straight game with a left hip contusion, leaving their fast-break offense almost nonexistent.
But Bridges’ scoring and the return of Nic Claxton, who was back after missing the previous eight games with a sprained ankle, was enough to get the Nets back to .500 (5-5).
Claxton provided the physicality the Nets were looking for upon his return, with 13 rebounds and a key block of a Kyle Kuzma shot with the Nets protecting a three-point lead with 55 seconds remaining.
The Nets had lost three of four coming into the game, although the three defeats came to two of the top teams in the Eastern Conference — the Celtics (twice) and Milwaukee.
The victory was also just the Nets’ second in five games at home.
Washington fell to 2-7 and has dropped six of its last seven games.
After holding a comfortable lead for much of the first three quarters, the Nets had their advantage cut to one point when Landry Shamet drilled a 3-pointer with 2:45 to go in the third quarter to make it 68-67.
Dennis Smith Jr. answered immediately for the Nets with a 3-pointer to start a 10-2 run that gave the Nets a bit of breathing room again — but it didn’t last.
The lead completely slipped away in the fourth quarter, as the Wizards scored eight points in a row to tie the game at 80-80 with 9:43 to go, most of which was with Bridges and Spencer Dinwiddie on the bench.
Dinwiddie replaced Smith after the Wizards tied the game, but Washington was still able to take its first lead of the game on a Bilal Coulibaly layup with 7:57 left.
Coulibaly then put Washington up again, 85-82 with a 3-pointer with 6:44 to go.
The Nets fell behind by five points before Bridges hit his second 3-pointer after he’d been missing from deep throughout the game.
A layup from Cam Johnson tied it with 4:58 left.
A Jordan Poole 3-pointer put Washington ahead again, but Bridges tied it with 2:21 to go with a driving layup.
Bridges then put the Nets up again by hitting 1 of 2 free throws and then gave them a three-point lead with a short fadeaway jumper with 1:28 left.
The Nets led by as many as 17 points in the first quarter, as they got off to a fast start behind a dozen points from Bridges, even as he missed all five of his 3-point attempts in the quarter.
But Washington controlled much of the second quarter and cut the lead to five with 7:20 to go in the half.
The Nets got the lead back up to 12 later in the quarter and were up 49-41 at the half on the strength of a 38-20 rebounding advantage — and in spite of shooting just 6 of 27 from 3-point range.
They were helped by Washington’s shoddy shooting from 3, as the Wizards went 5-for-21.