NEW ORLEANS – After heartbreakers in Boston and Cleveland, the Nets were staring at a gut check Monday night.

It turned out that their guts were just fine.

The Nets flipped the script on their late lead and pulled off a 107-105, come-from-behind win over the Pelicans before a sellout crowd of 16,895 at the Smoothie King Center.

“It was good to finally get a fourth quarter win,” said Cam Thomas, who scored 10 of his team-high 17 points in the fourth quarter. “We gave up a lead in the third; they went on the run, but went on another run early in the fourth, so we got down. But credit to the boys for staying calm, sticking together and taking great shots when they needed to.

Thomas made the biggest shot when the Nets needed it.

Trailing 105-101 with 1:16 to go, the Nets closed with the final six points. They got a layup from Cam Johnson (15 points), a go-ahead 3-pointer from Thomas with 32.9 seconds left in regulation – with coach Jordi Fernandez trying to force a timeout – and a couple of defensive stands to make sure there was a timeout. no overtime.

It made the return trip from Bourbon Street more enjoyable.

“It would have been a tough run if we didn’t get this one,” said Ben Simmons, who had 12 assists off the bench. “It was important to end this road trip the right way.”

The road trip had been a tough one for the Nets (5-6).

They had lost in overtime at the defending champion Celtics on Friday and then squandered a fourth-quarter lead the next night against the Cavaliers, the last remaining undefeated in the league.

But on Monday they went back to work. Hardly.

The Nets trailed by seven and 105-101 in the fourth quarter after Brandon Boston Jr. had cleared a Ziaire Williams turnover, starting for the injured Dorian Finney-Smith. But Dennis Schroder (14 points) found Johnson for a running layup to cut the deficit in half with 1:15 to play.

Then Thomas – not noticing his coach calling a timeout, but seeing the clock and looking to get two possessions to New Orleans’ – stepped up for a step back 3.

“It’s expected. … He’s just different. His mentality was different when he took those shots,” Simmons said. “And we have a lot of confidence that he will make them.

“I told the guys, if it gets to 37 (seconds) and we’re disorganized, I’ll call it. And I saw that we were disorganized,” said Fernandez, who witnessed the late-game chaos that cost them Saturday in Cleveland. “I called it, but CT, he did what he does: step back 3. And basketball gods (intervened) because I actually called a timeout.”

Thank goodness for the Nets.

“I’m glad he didn’t, and I’m glad I didn’t see him because that would have been really bad,” laughed Thomas, who missed one of the two at the line with 14.9 seconds left . Orleans a chance to draw with a deuce.

Javonte Green missed from 3, then Thomas grabbed a rebound and got stuck, ending with a jump ball.

The ball went out of bounds and was initially ruled out of bounds by the Nets. But Fernandez won a challenge to reverse it, and Schroder ran out the clock.

After being outscored on the glass, 35-28, through three quarters, the Nets outscored the Pelicans, 18-10, in the fourth while holding them to 30.8 percent shooting.

“Just focusing on that, hitting bodies and then actually going for the ball, with that mentality. That’s all it is,” Simmons said.

After watching Brandon Ingram put up 22 points in the first half, they blew the ball out of his hands and held him to just two the rest of the way. With Zion Williamson and CJ McCollum out, the Pelicans had no answer.

“That was big for us,” Noah Clowney said. “We played a few games against really good teams where we played to the limit and didn’t close in the fourth inning. So for us, closing out in the fourth was a big step in the right direction. Even though it is not always pretty, we still succeeded.”