After losing eight games in a row, the New Jersey Nets have won two of their last three, including Sunday's 89-82 victory over the Atlanta Hawks at the Prudential Center in Newark.
The Hawks were playing just their second game with All Star Joe Johnson, but it wasn't enough to stop the Nets at home. It wasn't a perfect performance -- and we'll have the three bad stats later -- but here are the three good stats from New Jersey's eighth win of the season.
1. Seven Different Fourth Quarter Scorers
It's no secret that the Nets have struggled finding their identity on offense and they were anything but crisp in scoring just 89 points against the Hawks, but they got it done when they needed to in the final quarter Sunday.
Of the 27 points they scored in the fourth quarter, the Nets were led by Travis Outlaw and Brook Lopez's 5. More impressive was that seven players scored in the quarter. That's right, Outlaw, Lopez, Troy Murphy, Derrick Favors, Sasha Vujacic, Devin Harris and Jordan Farmar all played a hand in helping create the final margin of victory.
2. 30-11 Bench Scoring
That decisive fourth quarter? It was started off by the Nets bench with a 7-0 run and the backups scored New Jersey's first 12 points.
On the game, recently acquired Vujacic led the reserves with 10 points in 29 minutes and also added 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. With Outlaw and Kris Humphries struggling, Vujacic and Murphy helped to pick up the slack, something we haven't seen much from the Nets this season.
3. 46-39 Rebounding Advantage
New Jersey hasn't been as bad on the glass as they have offensively, but they have struggled winning the rebounding battle night in and night out. That wasn't the case Sunday even with Murphy, the team's leading rebounder, only playing 19 minutes.
Just like the scoring in the fourth quarter, the rebounding performance was a team effort. Recently promoted Stephen Graham led the team with 7 boards and was followed by four different players pulling down 6. For a team that will need to scrap together victories, hitting the glass as a team goes a long way.