Brooklyn Nets play against Los Angeles Lakers during the NBA regular season in New York, Nov 27, 2013. [Calvin Zhou / China Daily USA]

Nick Young and the Lakers' 3-point shooters couldn't miss early. Paul Pierce couldn't believe he missed at the end.

Young scored a season-high 26 points to spark a huge effort from the league's most productive bench, and Los Angeles beat the Brooklyn Nets 99-94 on Wednesday night after blowing a 27-point lead.

Wesley Johnson made the tiebreaking basket when he stole Pierce's pass and dunked with 1:35 left, and the Lakers used their sizzling start to bounce back from a loss in Washington a night earlier and win for the fourth time in five games.

"We weren't doing anything wrong (early in the game)," Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni said. "Everything was going and going, and guys were hitting shots. We just have to understand how we do it and bottle it and keep going."

Pau Gasol added 21 points for the Lakers, moving into second place on the NBA's career list for points by a European player.

Brooklyn Nets play against Los Angeles Lakers during the NBA regular season in New York, Nov 27, 2013. [Calvin Zhou / China Daily USA]

Wearing new black uniforms and hearing "Let's go Lakers!" chants, the Lakers jumped on the Nets right from the start and were ahead 48-21 early in the second quarter. But the Nets fought all the way back, also behind their bench.

They had a chance to tie it again at the end, but Pierce just missed from straightaway with 2.2 seconds left, capping a 4-for-17 night.

"It's frustrating when the ball doesn't go your way, but eventually I know these shots throughout the course of 82 games are going to fall for me," Pierce said.

Joe Johnson scored 18 points but missed nine of 10 shots in the second half for the Nets, who failed in their bid to win consecutive games for the first time this season.

Mirza Teletovic had a career-best 17 for the Nets, Andray Blatche and Alan Anderson each added 14, and Pierce finished with 12.

Still without starters Deron Williams and Brook Lopez, plus key reserves Jason Terry and Andrei Kirilenko, the Nets fell to the Lakers for the 11th straight time.

Gasol has 15,773 points. He entered 10 behind Detlef Schrempf for No. 2 among European players, and the center from Spain now trails only Dallas' Dirk Nowitzki.