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Nets continue road trip in Denver

Feb 23, 2015 - 3:22 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The Brooklyn Nets would be in the playoff mix if the season ended over the weekend.

The Nets, though, still have 29 games remaining and will resume an eight-game road trip Monday against the Denver Nuggets at the Pepsi Center.

Brooklyn started the journey with three straight losses in Washington, Milwaukee and Memphis, and ended the slide with a 114-105 victory over the LA Lakers Friday at Staples Center.

Joe Johnson scored a team-high 23 points, Brook Lopez added 22 and 14 rebounds off the bench and Deron Williams recorded 12 points with a season-high 15 assists in his return to the starting lineup. The Nets scored 40 points on 71.4 percent shooting in the third quarter and had 96 after 36 minutes.

The Nets also handed out a season-best 29 assists.

"We played well, we attacked and shared the basketball," Brooklyn coach Lionel Hollins said.

Thaddeus Young made his Brooklyn debut and posted eight points in 12 minutes off the bench. Young came over via trade with Minnesota before last Thursday's deadline. Lopez has played eight of the last nine games off the bench and is recording 18.9 points and 7.8 rebounds in that time.

Brooklyn is 12-16 on the road and still has trips to New Orleans, Houston and Dallas on the horizon. In injury news, forward Bojan Bogdanovic (ankle) and guard Jarrett Jack (hamstring) are doubtful against the Nuggets.

It's been a rough few weeks for the Nuggets, who will open a five-game homestand Monday versus Brooklyn, Phoenix, Utah, New Orleans and Milwaukee. The Nuggets have lost six in a row at the Pepsi Center, where they have a 12-14 record this season.

Denver went 1-2 on a recent road trip and sustained a lopsided 119-94 defeat at Oklahoma City on Sunday. The Thunder led 36-18 after 12 minutes and scored 98 points through three quarters.

Ty Lawson (17), Danilo Gallinari (16) and Jusuf Nurkic (10) rounded out the double-digit scorers for Denver, which was outrebounded by a 60-42 difference and made 36.1 percent from the floor in its 15th loss over the last 17 tries.

"As you can see from the game we didn't play very good defense... from the beginning," Gallinari said.

The Nuggets were handed a 102-96 loss at Brooklyn on Dec. 23, as Johnson scored 27 points and Lawson countered with 29 and nine assists. The Nets have won two straight and three of the last five meetings between the teams.

A Nets win would give them their first season sweep of Denver since 2005-06.

Denver is 32-9 all-time at home against the Nets.