NEWARK, NJ -- The Nets don’t want to keep playing games this way, but as long as they win, they’ll take it.

New Jersey gave up an 18-point lead, fell behind by eight and then ended the game scoring 17 of the last 20 points to beat Sacramento, 106-100, Friday night at the Prudential Center.

It took two games for the Nets to earn their first two-game winning streak of the 2010 season. They didn’t win two in a row last year until March, didn’t win their second game of the season until many people were completing their Christmas shopping.

“We didn’t win our first game until December,” Brook Lopez said.

The Nets also won their third game in December, on the next-to-last day. If they win their third game this year in October, Avery Johnson has to be the Coach of the Month.

OK, so they won’t give one out for October, but if the Nets beat the Heat on Halloween, some people’s hair will stand up like Elvira’s.

The Nets probably already got some people’s attention with these two wins. First it was erasing a seven-point deficit against Detroit with 1:39 left in the opener. Friday night, it was a comeback from eight down as the clock was approaching the 3-minute mark.

“We’ve done a lot of good things,” Devin Harris said. “We’ve won the games. But we’re not nearly where we need to be. We started out really well. We had a big lull in that third quarter, even in the fourth. If we can limit those lulls offensively, I think we can make these games a little less exciting and win them the way we’re supposed to.”

The Nets definitely made this game harder than it needed to be, thanks to 27 turnovers and an 18:48 stretch over the second, third and fourth quarters where they made just five shots. But in the end, all that matters is what happened at the end, and Harris, who had 21 points and 10 assists, was the catalyst.

• Down 97-89, Harris feeds Lopez for a hook shot inside.
• Two trips later, Harris feeds Jordan Farmar for a 3-pointer.
• Next possession, Harris is fouled, and hits 1-of-2 free throws to make it a 97-95 game.
• After a stop, Johnson calls timeout and Farmar feeds Harris for a 3-pointer.
• After another stop, Harris hits a pull-up jumper to make it 100-97 with 30.2 seconds left.

The Nets let up the big lead to Sacramento, but wouldn’t let this final lead disappear. They finished the game making six straight free throws.

“It was definitely rough, but we kept fighting back,” Lopez said. “It’s tough on the ticker, but I’ll take that every time, as long as we come out winning.”

“It says we’re a team with a lot of heart, but it’s not something we want to make a habit,” Harris said. “It’s good to know we can make these comebacks, but we don’t want this every game. We lose it and we have to find the energy to come back, because it’s a long season.”

Sloppy play, being a step slow on defense and relying on too many jumpers made the lead disappear. But over the final 3:13, the Nets were 4-for-4 from the floor, 6-for-7 from the free-throw line and scored on eight of nine trips.

In the end, all that mattered was the end.

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Coach’s Corner

“Our guys are really starting to get the MO of a team that’s a bunch of fighters, guys that don’t give up. So let’s praise the comeback. They didn’t hang their heads except for a short period of time in the game when things weren’t going right because of the turnovers and and just too many offensive fouls. But if you score 106 points and you have [27] turnovers, that’s like a summer league game at the rec center. And you still win, then that shows, I think, [that] we’re heading in the right direction, and that’s how I’m going to look at it.”
 
- Avery Johnson on winning despite all the errors

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Follow me on Twitter: @Al_Iannazzone

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