76ers' Turner hits buzzer-beater in OT to beat Nets

PHILADELPHIA -- The ball danced on the rim once, twice, a third time.

"It felt like 150 times, the way it bounced," Philadelphia 76ers guard/forward Evan Turner said of his layup at the overtime buzzer Friday night against the Brooklyn Nets. "It was up there. I just was thinking about my reaction if it didn't go in, who I was going to punch."

His shot finally did fall, giving the Sixers a 121-120 victory and bringing to an end their seven-game losing streak.

"The basketball gods," he said, "looked out for me."

Turner, who collected 29 points and 10 rebounds, took a handoff from center Spencer Hawes at the top of the circle and drove the left side of the lane before firing from close range, while surrounded by defenders.

"We called his number, and he delivered," Sixers coach Brett Brown said.

Forward Thaddeus Young added 25 points and reserve guard Tony Wroten had 19 for the Sixers (8-19), who on Monday had been drubbed 130-94 by the Nets in Brooklyn, behind guard Joe Johnson's 37-point explosion. It was Philadelphia's second straight defeat by 34 or more.

Johnson did not play Friday for personal reasons. Brooklyn (9-17), which lost for the third time in four games, also rested veteran forward Kevin Garnett.

"I'm proud of them, just for staying together," Brown said of his team. "It's easy to get deflated when you lose, and you lose the way we did the last two games."

But he said this week's practices had gone well.

"I always feel like with work, you deserve something," Brown said.

Guard Alan Anderson scored a season-high 26 points for the Nets. Forward Paul Pierce had 24, as well as 10 rebounds.

Center Brook Lopez had 22 points, and forward Mirza Teletovic matched his career high of 18. Point guard Deron Williams contributed 17 points and 14 assists.

Sixers rookie point guard Michael Carter-Williams, who had missed the previous seven games -- all losses -- with a skin infection on his right knee, had 15 points and 10 assists.

Carter-Williams' two free throws gave the Sixers a 116-115 lead with 2:30 left in the extra period. Young added a 3-pointer, but Williams countered with a jumper. Pierce then made a 3-pointer from the right wing with 16.9 seconds left, giving the Nets a 120-119 advantage.

The Sixers topped the 120-point mark for the fourth time this season, and shot 51 percent from the floor. They also outscored the Nets in the paint 66-30.

"We need to turn it around," Williams said of Brooklyn's defense. "We've been talking about it for a while. We just need to go out and do it."

Turner tied the game at 108-108 when he made a free throw with 50.4 seconds left in regulation. Carter-Williams and Williams each missed potential game-winning shots in the closing seconds.

The Sixers sank nine of their first 12 shots, four of those by Turner, to establish a 19-10 advantage early in the game, but by the end of the first quarter Brooklyn surged into a 31-29 lead courtesy of Deron Williams' 10 points.

Teletovic nailed three 3-pointers in the first six minutes of the second period, allowing his team to push its lead to 49-44, but the Sixers closed the quarter with a 16-8 spree to go up 60-57 at the half. Wroten had five points in that run, while Carter-Williams contributed four.

Turner, who made his first eight shots, finished the half 9-for-11 from the field for 18 points. Teletovic had 15, on five 3-pointers, to pace the Nets.

Anderson then exploded for 16 points in the third period, during which Brooklyn established an 81-73 lead, only to see the Sixers reel off nine of quarter's last 11 points -- the last five of those by Wroten -- to creep within one, at 83-82.

NOTES: 76ers G/F Evan Turner shot 13-for-22 Friday night. ... The Sixers are 4-1 in overtime this season, and each of their last four victories have come in OT. ... Nets G Shaun Livingston had 11 assists off the bench. ... Brooklyn shot 15-for-33 from 3-point range, the seventh time the Sixers have allowed an opponent to make 15 or more 3-pointers in a game this year, an NBA single-season record. The previous record was five. ... 76ers F Thaddeus Young refuted a report that emerged Thursday, saying he had asked to be traded. In fact he denied it twice -- once after Friday's shoot-around, once before the game. "When I saw the story (Thursday), I looked at it, I laughed and then I went back to playing with my two sons," he said a little over an hour before tipoff. "That tells you how much I cared about it. At the end of the day, I am here, ready to go, today, 110 percent. ... One hundred and 10 percent ready to go out there, hustle and give my everything to this team and to this organization and to this city, like I have been for the last seven years." ... Nets G Jason Terry (bruised left knee) missed his 15th straight game, while F Andrei Kirilenko sat out his 21st in a row with back spasms.