Steve Kerr knew what his Golden State Warriors were in for when they visited the Brooklyn Nets on Monday night: “Every time we’ve played them over the last couple years, they’ve been energetic, well-organized,
well-coached. So, you know, they came to our place last year and beat us. We came here last year, and it was like 24-to-6 right out of the gate. We had to fight to win at the end, so I just think they’re doing a great job. Jordi is doing a great job, his staff, player development … Obviously they’re doing something right.”
Kerr also knew it was going to be even harder for his team — the second-oldest in the NBA — on the second night of a grueling back-to-back: “They’re a long, athletic team at multiple spots, and they cause a lot of problems defensively with that activity. So you may have heard me say this once or twice, but we’ve got to secure the ball tonight and execute. But I think what makes tonight a little different is just the quick turnaround, the back-to-back, the overtime game in Toronto.”
Flash forward an hour: Kerr called a timeout with his team down 18-8, the Nets catapulted in front after scoring a couple baskets off Warriors turnovers. Michael Porter Jr. and Egor Dëmin had a pair of 3-pointers in the opening minutes, and Steph Curry, the man who spiked Monday’s get-in price to nearly three bills…
seemed sluggish. Brooklyn quickly extended their lead to a baker’s dozen; another bench performance like the one they got in Saturday’s victory might have been a knockout punch, but they didn’t get it.
Granted, defending Steph Curry — who ran with GSW’s reserve-heavy unit — is a bit different than defending Rob Dillingham. It wasn’t all bad for the reserves: Nolan Traore shot 3-of-4 from three on the night, and was part of an electric sequence that doubly embarrassed Draymond Green…
Alas, Brooklyn lost Traore’s minutes by 21 points, tied with Cam Thomas for the worst mark on the team. Thomas, fresh off his triumphant, 30-point return to the lineup, put up 13/0/2 on 5-of-12 shooting. Surrounded by three rookies and Day’Ron Sharpe, Thomas not have the easiest task in creating offense, but Golden State’s blitzing defense largely gave him fits, and the Nets had just a 97.3 offensive rating with CT on-court.
“It’s never the same game,” said Jordi Fernández. “And you know, this is a very good defensive team, they’re trying to be very aggressive with CT, which we knew, and when we make the simple play, we still get an open shot. But it was a good experience for the group … that second group was not good, but I still trust them.”
Others stepped up, though. Porter Jr. maintained his hot start to lead Brooklyn in scoring with 27/9/5 on 10-of-18 shooting. Nic Claxton, perhaps motivated by early double-techs with Draymond Green, played one of his best games of the season against a potential trade suitor, posting 15/9/4/3/3 and making some highlight passes that did not lead to assists.
The Warriors, though, just chipped away. De’Anthony Melton, salary-dumped to Brooklyn last season with one ACL intact, was excellent off the bench, as was Trayce Jackson-Davis. Gary Payton II and Will Richard also reached double-digits off the bench, as the Warriors recovered from their early sluggishness to take a two-point lead into halftime, then a four-point lead into the fourth.
They shot 28-of-38 inside the paint, to Jordi Fernández’s despair: “We allowed 76% [shooting] at the rim, so that’s not good enough, but it was not just there. This is a team that plays off the ball, and they move the ball and move bodies and play splits, and they don’t play off pick-and-roll, so you have to be very on point with guarding those cuts. And today, we just gave up that. I remember backdoor cuts and drives and slips to the rim. It can happen because they’re very good at it, but it was a lot of falling asleep on the weak-side and stuff like that that we haven’t done before.”
Thanks to layup after layup, the visitors began to pull away. Brooklyn’s last hope was simply to outscore the Warriors, and rookie Egor Demin gave it his best shot. His seventh 3-pointer of the night cut the deficit to 110-106 with two minutes left, giving him 23 points to match a career-high.
Overall, he shot 7-of-17 on the night but 7-of-14 from three, a new Nets single-game record among rookies…
Dëmin tried to will the Nets even further, but got blocked and then coughed up a turnover at half-court in the waning minutes, humbling him just a little on his career-night.
Said Fernández: “The lessons come every day, especially against a good defensive team. Like I said, shot good but his decisiveness and ability to touch the paint, to create assists, could have been better. And now he’s watched film, he’s always very good with — you know, he has high expectations for himself, and I say the same. I want that 3-point shooting percentage and aggressiveness the same, I want better setups. I want more paint touches. I want more assists. I want more physicality in both ends, and he’s going to try to do his best.”
Steph Curry made some ridiculous shots in the second half, and Jimmy Butler bullied his way to the line. Despite Dëmin’s best efforts and despite those of his teammates, the Warriors didn’t show age on the second night of a back-to-back, but experience. But neither the Nets nor their 19-year-old rookie backed down.
They’re not going to win every night, and the future is wildly undetermined, but it’s tough not to feel like Dëmin and the Nets are getting somewhere.
“Well, I haven’t played that many NBA games yet, so I’m trying to take all of them under my belt, if I can say it that way, right? And especially against teams like this, where I can really not just play against them, but learn from them … it can be helpful for me in the future and for us as a team.” — Egor Dëmin.
Final Score: Golden State Warriors 120, Brooklyn Nets 107
