Egor Dëmin and Michael Porter Jr. combined for 12 3-pointers in a loss to the Golden State Warriors, but neither of them were available on New Year’s Day when the Brooklyn Nets were hosting the Houston Rockets. Terance Mann would also miss the contest, leaving the Nets down three starts in their first contest of 2026.
Houston also had a chock-full injury report, but Tari Eason and Alperen Şengün, both listed as questionable, would play. The visiting Rockets clearly had a muted New Year’s Eve celebration:
healthy, rested, and explosive out of the gate.
Jordi Fernández called a timeout with his team down 12-2 after Amen Thompson scored three of the easiest baskets of his career…
Fernández went with a funky starting lineup in the face of injuries, rolling out Drake Powell, Danny Wolf, Noah Clowney, Nic Claxton, and Ziaire Williams, who had been out of the rotation entirely in the previous two games. Alas, the starters got killed.
Williams played decently, scoring 14 points and notching a career-high five steals. Outside of his play, the only other highlights the group produced were a couple Danny Wolf stops on Reed Sheppard…
The starting group just couldn’t do much right; by comparison, Houston’s starters shot 37-of-57 from the floor, and on the rare occasion they did miss a shot, dominated the offensive glass. Per Cleaning the Glass, the Rockets recovered 36.4% of their own misses in this one, even with Steven Adams and Clint Capela unavailable off the bench.
Brooklyn’s bench did prevent them from being totally embarrassed, however. The hosts trailed 53-42 at halftime, probably a better fate than they deserved, and one largely attributable to Day’Ron Sharpe’s early work. He had the strength and motor to bother Alperen Şengün much more than Nic Claxton did, and even did some of his own work on the offensive boards. Overall, Sharpe finished with a robust 8/8/7 off the bench, and the Nets only lost his minutes by two points.
But the Nets could not sustain the momentum Sharpe brought early. The Rockets, who shot 41.4% from deep, won the third quarter 37-25 and turned the final hour of the game into glorified garbage time. Kevin Durant, in another return to Barclays Center, put up 22/5/11, assisting on Houston’s first five buckets and generally having a grand old time in a stress-free win…
Durant’s one-time protégé Cam Thomas got busy in the second half, chucking like crazy but making a few difficult attempts, scoring 15 of his 21 points after the break. He finished with 21/1/1 and four turnovers on 8-of 13 shooting.
Jordi did not mince words in postgame: “The most important thing is how his body responds now after all these games. Now the third game, which is important for what he’s gone through. And so far, I’m happy with his superpowers, the scoring, but once again I need better defense and better playmaking.”
However, Thomas did win his minutes by two points. Postgame, I asked him if it was particularly difficult to watch his team struggle from the bench, particularly after being a starter for much of the past two seasons. Thomas paused, gave a big smile, and said: “No comment.”
That non-answer may have been more interesting than the game, though Drake Powell threw down a garbage-time dunk and Danny Wolf hit a 3-pointer to button up the scoreboard just a little. Powell finished with 8/0/1 on 3-of-9 shooting, while Wolf put up 9/4/5 on 4-of-10 shooting.
Said Jordi of his two rookies getting the start: “I trust that they’ll try to do the right things. Their intentions have always been great. I need them to be to be aggressive, I need them to be more decisive. I need them to — it’s just the little things and it’s a little bit of a growing pains. I think they did an okay job, I know they can be much better, and that’s why my standards for all of them are always going to be high.”
This was what Nets fans expected at the start of a season that promised to be all about tanking. Veterans missed the game, the rookies played big minutes and made a couple of nice plays but mostly got killed in their minutes, and Brooklyn was no match for a contending team.
I guess we were due for one of these, huh.
Final Score: Houston Rockets 120, Brooklyn Nets 96
Injury Update
Though the Nets were missing three starters, none of the injuries appear too severe. MPJ missed the game with an illness (yes, he was listed on the injury report prior to any potential New Year’s Eve shenanigans), while Terance Mann was out with a right hip contusion.
Jordi Fernández did expand on Egor Dëmin, out with lower back soreness: “It’s been throughout the games, and obviously me playing him more minutes and making sure that he can continue to play. So, that’s something that popped up, but we believe he’ll be fine soon. He’ll be supporting his teammates and ready for the next one.”
The Nets have had five back-to-backs this season; Dëmin and Porter Jr. have been fully healthy in just two of them. However, Fernández isn’t worried about their future availability, pointing out the uneven schedule that’s had Brooklyn play the fewest games in the league to this point. He believes a more consistent schedule will benefit them: “Now, we’ll play four games a week for five straight weeks. I have very good people preparing for that and looking at the data at how much I play them.”
Next Up
The Nets will play a fellow bottom-feeder on the second half of a back-to-back, traveling to face the Washington Wizards. It would be one hell of a surprising choice to keep three starters, including MPJ, out for a game against the Rockets, only to turn around and play them against Washington. Keep an eye out for the injury report on Friday morning, with tip-off scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET.
