Bogut guides Warriors past Nets

OAKLAND, Calif. — On a night when their two big guns combined to miss 20 shots, including nine 3-point attempts, the Golden State Warriors needed to find another way to get their sellout crowd fired up Thursday night.

Andrew Bogut accomplished the feat at the other end of the court.

The veteran center highlighted a brilliant all-around game with four blocked shots, leading a balanced Warriors team to a 107-99 victory over the Brooklyn Nets.

In snapping a two-game losing streak and beating the Nets for the ninth time in the teams’ last 10 meetings, the Warriors (6-2) never trailed in the second half. Golden State ended the second quarter on a 15-4 run that opened a double-digit lead.

Golden State’s defense then took over, holding Brooklyn to 44 second-half points after the Nets totaled 36 in the first quarter alone.

“The whole key to getting the crowd involved is defense,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “Once you get stops and get rebounds, you can get out and run, and then the crowd gets into it.”

Bogut was the game’s top rebounder with 14 to complement his four blocks. He also found time for 11 points, completing his second double-double of the season, and five assists.

He got the greatest pleasure from the blocks.

“Especially when it leads to an easy basket,” the 7-footer said of his crowd-pleasing rejections. “When we’re fluttering offensively, our defense needs to do it for us.”

Bogut got help up front from power forward Draymond Green, who also filled the stat sheet with 17 points, eight rebounds, a career-high seven assists and two blocks. The Warriors outrebounded the Nets 45-41.

Golden State won despite missing 23 of its 34 3-point attempts. Neither shooting guard Klay Thompson (4-for-9) nor point guard Stephen Curry (3-for-7) hit half his threes on a night when the duo combined to shoot 14-for-34 overall.

“There are going to be nights when the other team is intent upon getting the ball out of their hands,” Bogut said of the team’s star guards. “We’re very deep. We’ve got a lot of guys who can score.”

Thompson overcame 8-for-22 shooting to total a game-high 25 points. Curry had 17 points and small forward Harrison Barnes 12 as all five Warriors starters scored in double figures.

Brooklyn fell to 4-4 despite a perfect night from the field from backup guard Jarrett Jack. The former Warrior hit all 10 of his shots and finished with a team-high 23 points in just 26 minutes.

Jack became the first guard to shoot at least 10 times in a road game and make them all since Seattle’s Gary Payton did it Jan. 4, 1995.

“It’s always fun to come back and play with familiar faces,” Jack said. “The fans here show me a tremendous amount of love and support, and I will appreciate them forever. It is always special to play here.”

Point guard Deron Williams and center Brook Lopez had 18 points apiece for the Nets, who were playing one night after opening a three-game Western swing with a 112-104 loss at Phoenix.

“When you come out West, those are the types of teams you play,” Nets coach Lionel Hollins said of the difficulty of playing the Warriors. “They have mismatches all over the place.”

The Nets, who entered the game as the league’s second-best shooting team with a 48.6 percent accuracy rate, shot 43.8 percent overall and just 3-for-16 (18.8 percent) from 3-point range.

Bogut’s best stretch came early in the fourth quarter with the Nets hanging within 89-79.

The veteran blocked interior attempts by Brooklyn big men Mason Plumlee and Lopez in a three-possession sequence, turning the second rejection into a crowd-lifting Warriors hoop when he hit Curry with a long outlet pass that produced a layup and a 93-79 lead with 8:46 to go.

Shooting guard Bojan Bogdanovic hit a 3-pointer in a 9-0 Nets flurry that made it a five-point game with 6:10 to play. However, Curry nailed a 3-pointer, and Thompson had three hoops, including a 3-pointer of his own, as Golden State rebuilt another double-digit lead inside the 2:00 mark and held on.

NOTES: The Warriors played their first game against an Eastern Conference team. They went 20-10 against Eastern foes last year. … Warriors C Andrew Bogut has 17 blocks in the club’s first eight games. Opponents have blocked only 15 Golden State shots over that stretch. … Golden State PG Stephen Curry’s fourth point pushed him past 7,000 for his career. He became the 17th player in Warriors history to reach the milestone.