"It's just one at the end of the day," guard Chris Douglas-Roberts said. "It's one win. We wanted it to get it out of the way. It means a lot. We did it. We can't be satisfied with it. We've got to move forward and put something together.
"I'm looking at it like this: With this new slate, we're 1-0 and that's how we're going to look at it."
Brook Lopez had 31 points and 14 rebounds, and Courtney Lee scored a career-high 27 points in his return to the starting lineup for the Nets in their first game under Kiki Vandeweghe, their general manager who will coach the rest of the season.
Fans stood and cheered in the final minute as the Nets, who set the record for worst start with their loss to Dallas on Wednesday night, won for the first time since April 13, when they also beat the Bobcats.
Players hugged at center court after the final buzzer, with Vandeweghe standing and clapping in front of the bench.
"For me, I was happy for the players," Vandeweghe said. "This has been a bit of a struggle. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. It was tough, tough on everybody."
Lee made the tiebreaking free throws with 2:22 left, dunked after a steal 15 seconds later, and New Jersey put it away when Devin Harris made three from the line with 1:26 remaining for a 93-86 lead.
"It feels good. We brought great energy," said Harris, adding he could finally exhale when the clock read 1 second. "We didn't play great all time, but we fought."
New Jersey trailed by eight points in the third quarter before controlling the fourth to end any fears of flirting with the NBA's longest single-season losing streak of 23 games, held by the Vancouver Grizzlies and Denver Nuggets.
Raymond Felton and Stephen Jackson each scored 28 for the Bobcats, who have lost two in a row after a four-game winning streak
- including the loss that all New Jersey opponents had desperately wanted to avoid.
"They played hard. They deserved to win. They're an NBA team. It shouldn't have come tonight," Charlotte center Tyson Chandler said.
Lee's jumper with 10:53 remaining tied it at 71 - though most of the 12,131 fans on hand loudly groaned as the scoreboard operator, apparently unfamiliar with the Nets being in such good position in the fourth quarter
- gave the points to the Bobcats.
The Nets opened a 76-71 lead, blew that, then went ahead by six later in the period, only to have Jackson nail consecutive 3-pointers to tie it at 84 with 2:51 to play, setting up Lee's big finish.
"This game is a game of runs, and so we had our run and we knew they were going to come back and attack us again," Lee said. "It was just if we had enough character and poise to take that hit and continue to play through it."
Vandeweghe was given the position Tuesday, two days after the Nets fired Lawrence Frank. Assistant Tom Barrise guided the team for the previous two losses so Vandeweghe could run practice Thursday before coaching for the first time.
