Nets use suddenly stifling defense to rout Raptors

From October to now, the Nets defense has gone from sieve to stout.

Sunday, it was smothering.

Brooklyn rolled to a 96-81 rout of the visiting Raptors before a sellout crowd of 17,548 at Barclays Center.

And it wasn’t high-scoring offense that led the way but suddenly stifling work on the other end of the floor.

The Nets (8-19) allowed their fewest points of the season, besting the 82 they’d conceded in a 45-point rout of Milwaukee exactly a week earlier.

It’s the first time they’ve held foes to 82 points or fewer multiple times in a season since 2018-19.

And defense is becoming less of a fluke and more of an expectation.

The Nets are holding opponents to just 102.3 points per game so far in December, the fewest in the NBA, surpassing the reigning champion Thunder.

Considering the embarrassing way they opened this season — compiling a league-worst 128.5 defensive rating during an 0-7 start — the turnaround is shocking.

Noah Clowney defends during the Nets’ Dec. 21 win over the Raptors. Heather Khalifa for the NY Post

The Nets matched their best defensive first quarter (18 points) and had their best defensive half (39 points) of the season.

Then they went out and closed the deal.

Trailing 71-69 with 10:10 after a bucket by Toronto’s Immanuel Quickley, the Nets mounted a 24-6 blitz.

They held the Raptors to 1-of-10 shooting in that run and hit 10-of-13 themselves to seize the game.

Michael Porter Jr. had 24 points and 11 rebounds, while lottery pick Egor Dëmin added 16 points, five rebounds, two steals and hit 4-of-8 from deep.

The Nets defend against Brandon Ingram during their win Dec. 21. Heather Khalifa for the NY Post

The Nets held Toronto to 37.2 percent shooting and 10-of-36 from 3-point range.

With the game knotted at 36-all with 3:20 left in the half on Brandon Ingram’s driving layup, the Nets untied it.

Noah Clowney’s free throw capped a 14-3 run that spanned intermission and put the Nets ahead 50-39.

The lead was 67-54 with 1:47 left in the third quarter, when the Nets offense went into a funk.

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They coughed up 15 unanswered points and the lead.

By the time Brooklyn missed five straight shots and gave away a couple of turnovers, Quickley had found Collin Murray-Boyles for a running dunk and put the Nets in a 69-67 hole just over a minute into the fourth.

But the Nets answered right back with a 15-4 blitz of their own.

Porter Jr. stemmed the tide, bullying in for a game-tying layup.

Dëmin drilled a 3-pointer that made it 79-73 and sent the Raptors scurrying for a timeout.

And Clowney rattled home a left-corner 3 of his own to cap the run and pad the cushion to 82-73.

They pulled away from there.