The opponent doesn’t matter. It didn’t matter either that the Kings were without Tyreke Evans. This was a game the Nets had to have. They knew it and they played like it.

The home losing streak, a record 14 straight, ended last night. The NBA record for worst season ever is up in the air, but the Nets inched closer to making sure they’re not that team with a commanding 93-79 win over the Sacramento Kings.

Defense was part of the story, but the real story was that the Nets finally played with a sense of urgency. They have been talking so much lately about doing whatever it takes to win three more games. (Now they need two). But until last night, they didn’t do what it took.

They would for stretches, but they’re not good enough to just play for stretches, even against this Kings team, which should not be 16 games better than the Nets. Granted, they’re without their best player, but even with Evans they’re not that much better as the Nets.

But this isn’t a blog for piling on the Nets. They deserve some props for last night, for playing the way they should be playing all along. Their coach, whom everyone – me included - has taken shots at because he’s not a coach, deserves your attention and respect, too.

Kiki Vandeweghe lost his mother yesterday morning. Vandeweghe had spent the prior few days with her in California and could have chosen to go back to be with his family. But his family told him to coach, to be around the game they loved as a family.

His dad, Ernie, a former NBA player, told Kiki to be with the team and stay with the team. So Vandeweghe conducted the morning shootaround and then coached the Nets to their eighth win of the season.

“My mother was obviously very special to all of our family, to me and to my father, known here around New York as Dr. Ernie,” Vandeweghe said. “She talked to my dad about it. She said she would have wanted me here. She knows that I love this and we love it as a family.

“But what I’d like to say is thanks Mom. We got one.”

It was an important one for the Nets, and around the midway point of the second quarter and early in the third, it looked like this game could go either way. The majority of those this season has gone the opponents’ way.

But it was as if something clicked in the Nets after falling behind by three with about five minutes left in the half.

A steal led to a Chris Douglas-Roberts' dunk and then a Brook Lopez block to a Devin Harris fastbreak layup and a Nets lead. It was only a point, but they never trailed again, scoring seven consecutive in total.

The key would be the third quarter, though. That’s when they always fall apart.

It was a two-point game. Usually, two turns into a 10-point deficit in a blink of an eye.

But the Nets turned two into a 10-point lead in about two minutes, and 12 a little later, and to 17 in the fourth. Lopez and Harris controlled the game on both ends, and they collectively didn’t let a zone defense bury them like usual.

Lopez finished with 26 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks and Harris 24 points and nine assists.

“We conquered a lot of our ills,” Harris said. “Third-quarter woes, shooting percentage in the fourth quarter and we seized the zone.”
 
“It’s been a rough year for all of us, and it’s a good feeling for the guys. Hopefully we can hold on to this and carry it into the next game.”

If the Nets play with this urgency, confidence and poise the rest of the way, they will get the two wins they need.

Al Iannazzone covers the Nets for The Record (Bergen County, N.J.)