The Brooklyn Nets hosted the Phoenix Suns at the Barclays Center this evening. It was the first time in a while where the two teams meeting didn’t feel like running into an ex out in public.
No Kevin Durant.
No Cam Johnson. No Mikal Bridges. Not even any of Phoenix’s future first rounders were in the backdrop tonight — just a whole lot of buckets on a day to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Brooklyn and Phoenix collectively began tonight shooting 6-10 from deep. Two were put in Drake Powell, who returned to the starting lineup tonight with Egor Dëmin held out for injury management.
Although Powell’s name fell into the point guard slot on the pregame lineup card, ball-handling was done by a committee for Brooklyn. Terance Mann got some reps, even dishing seven assists in the first half, as did Michael Porter Jr. and Nic Claxton.
But despite the widespread effort, the Net offense struggled everywhere other than from three in the first. The Nets shot 5-10 on two-point field goals in the period, while the Suns posted thermonuclear .714/.667 splits.
Brooklyn’s misses also permitted Phoenix to control the game’s pace, as they grabbed eight points on the break. The Nets (naturally) got a bit faster when Nolan Traoré checked in at the 4:19 point of the period. He, Jalen Wilson, Danny Wolf, Tyrese Martin, and Ziaire Williams, who returned after missing a week of ball with an illness, cut the deficit to nine after it had ballooned to 15 at one point, yet Phoenix maintained a 40-26 lead after one.
It was the first time the Nets gave up 40 points in a quarter since November 9th. In the second, Michael Porter Jr. looked to get it all back.
After going scoreless in the opening frame, MPJ dropped 13 points while shooting 5-6 from the field. Traoré also continued his run of impressive play since coming up from Long Island. The sequel to his career night in Chicago on Friday started with 10 first half points while shooting a perfect 3-3 from the field. Williams also hit two threes in the period’s final two four minutes. Mann also put one in for submission seconds before the deadline…
But again, every positive at the offensive end doubled as a negative at the other. Rather than switching, Brooklyn played more of in a drop this evening. Devin Booker and company went to work with the extra space provided. The Suns added 32 more points in the second, maintaining .619/.455/.909 splits as a team at half, where the led the Nets by a 72-68 tally.
Even as the shots continued to fall for Phoenix, the Nets did well to keep the deficit from full reinflating in the third. But while the Phoenix lead didn’t boil, the frustrations for Brooklyn did. Booker and Dillon Brooks each found success baiting the Nets and befooling officials early in the period. The Suns drew nine free throw attempts in the quarter’s first eight minutes after getting 11 in the entire first half.
The Nets made it a 112-105 game with 7:04 to go after Tyrese Martin connected on a transition three. Porter Jr. followed that up with a quick five, getting three with glam and two with grit…
But the mounting pressure from Brooklyn only caused Phoenix’s offensive crystallize and its bal movement to shine. As the Nets repeatedly looked to trap Booker, the Suns the rock with pace and precession, pulling the Brooklyn defense as if it were pizza dough before baking it with a bucket.
The Nets possessed the ball down nine with a little over a minute to go, but could only draw up a Powell step back three out of the timeout, which clanked off the side rim. Down too much and too late to make playing the foul game acceptable, Brooklyn went away a bit quieter than usual.
Final: Phoenix Suns 126, Brooklyn Nets 117
Injury Report
The only Net to miss tonight’s game not for injury management or a G-League assignment was Day’Ron Sharpe. The Nets tagged him with an illness/throat contusion injury designation pregame. We’ll monitor the situation and update as we learn more.
Next Up
Brooklyn hasn’t beaten their cross town rival since January of 2023, and even with the Nets sporting the league’s fifth-worst record, it feels like they’ll have a solid chance to break that streak on Wednesday night. The Knicks are in one of their worst losing spells in the Leon Rose era right now, having dropped eight of their last 10 games. The quest for redemption tips off at 7:30 at Madison Square Garden.
