One of the few silver linings to the Brooklyn Nets’ 1-6 start was the supposedly easier stretch of opponents awaiting them after it. As Jayson Tatum game-winners, injuries and second half collapses have all hacked away at early season morale, that was the only thing left to hold onto.
Like a jagged ledge in damp cave, it was a ballsy thing to reach for. After all, the Hornets had beaten Brooklyn badly at home just two weeks ago.
I’m not going to tell you to go rock climbing with your Nets friends after
this game, but I’m pleased to report, we’re still standing.
Brooklyn began this one with a starting five featuring Nolan Traoré, Chaney Johnson, Michael Porter Jr., Julius Randle, and Day’Ron Sharpe for a fourth straight game. Their first minutes brought mixed results. Day’Ron Sharpe picked up his first foul of the contest just six seconds into it, and then his second with us less than two minutes deep. That gave us a premature introduction to Mo Wagner.
But even if you discount the foul trouble, Brooklyn’s early defense looked flimsy. Either due to slow rotations or off offensive rebounds, the Nets gave up warm-up threes for Charlotte during pre-game shoot around sessions.
Luckily for Brooklyn, even in those shoot around sessions, nobody makes ‘em all. Charlotte missed all of ‘em, beginning the game 0-7 from downtown. The Nets, benefitting from another assertive start at the other end from Nolan Traoré and more efficient one from Julius Randle, led until the 3:47 mark of the first. The Hornets went ahead on a four point play, after Naz Reid hit a three as Wagner got caught with his elbow in Grayson Allen’s chest, which warranted a flagrant foul penalty. Don’t you hate when that happens?
Had Mikel Brown Jr. not come in and convert an and-one finish and then a step-back three in Moussa Diabaté’s face in back-to-back possessions, the Nets might’ve been down double digits after the opening frame. Instead, they trailed by just three.
MBJ kept the showing going in the subsequent quarter, hitting a turnaround jumper, dropping two assists, and taking a charge at the defensive end all within the span of three minutes. One of the dimes, a no-look, behind the back dish while soaring through the air. If you can’t even conceptualize what that would look like, I don’t blame you…
At half, Brown Jr. had nine points, three assists, a steal, and a block in 13 minutes. For Brooklyn, he trailed only Randle at the point, who had 14 points, three boards, and an assists. Michael Porter Jr. got hot late in the second, adding nine points and 3-8 shooting.
However, the Hornets maintained a seven point lead going into the break, even with three extra turnovers and after shooting 41% from the field against a Brooklyn defense that’d begun playing with an extra layer of physicality. As the Nets did better to shoot and take care of the ball better, Charlotte manufactured a seven extra points at the free throw line.
Apparently running New York’s playbook from Monday night, the Hornets also hit an abundance of corner threes down the stretch of the second. Grayson Allen, who led the Hornets with 20 points at the break, got two of his five made threes in the half from that areas.
During the break, the Nets announced that Noah Clowney would sit out the remainder of the game with right knee soreness. Chaney Johnson still started the third with the original group, but that gave us our first non-garbage time minutes of the season for Danny Wolf, who came in for Johnson less than three minutes deep in the frame.
The new lineup quickly made a case for itself as a mainstay in Jordi Fernández’s rotation. Capped off by a triple from Wolf himself, that group went on an 11-0 run in three minutes, giving the Nets a lead for the first time since the 5:42 point of the second.
The latter half of the third period then gave us some fun back-and-forth action as neither team managed to separate by more than a bucket or two. We even got a surprise cameo from Terance Mann, who’s either played early or not at all so far this year, coming in with around three and a half to go in the frame. Like the quarter before, Brown Jr. also finished it scoring with a three he carved up for himself in isolation, which things 80-80 entering the fourth.
There, Brooklyn began the scoring with triples from Randle, Wolf, and Brown Jr. to extend a six point lead.
A few moments after his triple, Brown Jr. turned it over trying to sneak an interior feed in for Sharpe, and then left his assignment trying to steal the ball back, leading to an open dunk for Charlotte and a Fernández timeout. The shot-making was there, but so were the headaches, as they often are with the league’s younger teams.
To win, the Nets would need proceed with one of those things and ditch other latter. Michael Porter Jr. got them off to a solid start in the right direction.
After Fernández’s timeout, MPJ got in on the action with three of his own makes from deep across Brooklyn’s next five possessions. He didn’t do anything fancy to get them — and didn’t need to — just ducking hard around screens and rising up to fire without hesitation. That was enough anything to keep it a multi-possession lead even as Reid put in nine points in the period’s first five minutes.
The Nets went up 10 with 3:49 to go after Sharpe got up for a rejection that sprung Wolf on the break, who finished and-one through a back-pedaling Sion James.
Without Kon Knueppel, who exited due to left leg soreness, and Brandon Miller shooting 1-12 from the field, the Hornets had no choice but to settle for Naz Reid isolation possessions. And the Nets, conscious by that point of the Charlotte’s intention to hunt switches with their big man, were ahead, shading and dropping in defense in a timely fashion to limit their opponent’s scoring.
Of course, Miller hit his first three of the game after a timeout a few sequences, but Traoré just kept on driving, and scoring, adding six points in the fourth. Fernández also won a big challenge to give Porter Jr. free throws that extended the lead to 12 with under two to go when we otherwise would have been Charlotte ball. He also rolled the dice closing with a lineup featuring Traoré, Mann, Porter Jr., Wolf, and Sharpe, as Randle only logged three fourth period minutes.
That group looked nothing like the uncoordinated and out of place team we saw last time out, running the clock down like a methodical NFL offense.
With all the active players logging minutes, almost all of them making an impact at one point or another, and Fernández pressing all the right buttons along the way, it was as good of a team effort as you’ve seen from this group in some time. It also got the Nets their first home win of the season.
Final: Brooklyn Nets 114, Charlotte Hornets 104
Injury Report
As mentioned, the Nets announced at halftime that Noah Clowney would be out for the remainder of the game with right knee soreness. We’ll provide updates on him as they’re made available.
Next Up
Brooklyn begins its first legitimate road trip of the season next with a trip down south to face the Atlanta Hawks. At the time of writing, Atlanta is 4-4 with wins over the Pacers, Cavaliers, Hornets, and Magic, and losses against the Pelicans, Heat, and two to the Rockets.
The Nets have lost five straight to the Hawks. Their last win came in March 2025 in a game where Keon Johnson, Tyrese Martin, and Jalen Wilson started. This next one tips off on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. EST.
