Jordi Fernández started his post game presser tonight by dispelling the notion that this contest was a “rollercoaster” game.
“I don’t think it was a rollercoaster for us,” he said. “It was 14 to 29 for us, and
we won by 15 points in the fourth. So, it was an amazing effort to come back, to try to do the right thing and to play with urgency.”
While all those things are true, my stomach begs to differ on the coaster categorization. I’d bet anyone watching on behalf of the visiting Orlando Magic would agree, too.
Whatever you want to call tonight’s ride for Brooklyn, it started slow. The Net defense looked rather lethargic to begin game no. 34. Service Steel Warehouse says in some cases, it can take as little as three days for iron to oxidize beyond repair, and the Nets supported that claim early on. Their otherwise ferric defense, which we haven’t seen since Sunday, looked quite rusty to begin the game. Day’Ron Sharpe got lost a few times after switches. The Nets also gave up nine first quarter offensive rebounds, pulled down just seven themselves at the defensive end.
However, and miraculously, the Nets still outscored the Magic in second chance points that period. Even with those extra opportunities to score, Orlando shot just 36.4% in the first. Their poor shooting would set a standard for the first half that could make even a 90s basketball nostalgist quease.
However, Michael Porter Jr. was a proud nonconformist during and beyond the opening frame. He continued to hit greens like Tiger Woods at Augusta National in ’97. He poured in 12 first period points while shooting 5-9 from the field. He scored or assisted on 15 of Brooklyn’s first 19 points to begin the evening.
Our other known bucket-getter, Cam Thomas, didn’t come off the bench until the the 3:48 point of the first. He was part of a hockey line-like change that saw Nic Claxton, Danny Wolf, Nolan Traore, and Drake Powell join him in the first. CT didn’t get his first points until the waining seconds of the first, where he ran down the clock, rocked, an rolled the ball just over a Wendell Carter Jr.‘s reach to keep Brooklyn within a bucket ahead the second. Thomas remained a non-factor when things sped up in the fourth, finishing with just 10 points while shooting 3-11 from the field.
The Nets seized a brief lead to begin period two, but you wouldn’t remember it with how the rest of the frame played out. The Magic show in the second was far better than the first, as Orlando managed to shoot 8-19 from the field while the Brooklyn defense continued to look a step behind on its rotations.
Even with Orlando’s offensive resurgence, both teams shot a combined 38.6% form the field and 24.9% from deep. It was a rock fight by all accounts, and the Nets ended up under more of the rubble, behind the Magic at the break by a 48-43 score.
Absent from the first half, and eventually the entire game, was Terance Mann. Every night, there’s a veteran victimized by Brooklyn’s desire to give out development minutes, and that seemed to be Mann this evening.
“Yeah, it’s just a matter of having a lot of a lot of players performing well, giving looks at different roles for different players, and he’ll be back,” Fernández said. “So, it’s just a matter of me just seeing those roles and seeing those minutes. That’s pretty much it.”
Now, if Brooklyn really wanted to focus on the rebuild, they’d put Michael Porter Jr. in that position for a night, or even on another team. He made the clear in the third, reprising his role as Brooklyn’s lone offensive option in, scoring eight of Brooklyn’s first 10 points to start the quarter.
However, Orlando went on a 21-4 run in the latter of the period, and quickly shifted the offensive embarrassment solely onto Brooklyn’s side. With a few extra seconds, it could have been even worse too…
Brooklyn’s 15-point deficit to being the fourth set the stage for a period free of competitive pressure and ideal for player development, and the Nets seemed to take advantage, giving Powell, Wolf, and Traore some extended run alongside Claxton and Thomas.
Then, Jordi Fernández did the unthinkable in the mind of a tank commander, putting Porter Jr. and the original starting lineup back in the game with a little over five minutes to play. MPJ promptly hit two threes in about thirty seconds to make it an eight point game with 4:56 to go. That helped him get his 10th 30-point game of the season. MPJ had that same amount of 30-pieces in all four of his prior seasons combined.
Two minutes later, Dëmin found Clowney cutting along the baseline for an easy finish that made it a six point game. Dëmin followed that with a three and then Clowney slipped in a fadeaway that made it a one point game. The Nets were on a 17-4 run, and grinding their way to another improbable comeback.
The next time down the floor, Noah Clowney the ball through the hoop, but didn’t score…
There was one square foot in the entire building where Day’Ron Sharpe needed to keep his hand away from to have Brooklyn go ahead, but he stuck it there anyway. As Clowney’s shot fell into the net, he got caught with his hand in the basket, and tagged with a basket interference violation. That kept things at 91-90 with 1:03 to play.
However, the madness was just beginning. Out of a subsequent Orlando timeout, Tristan da Silva got free for a dunk that put the Magic up three with 16 seconds to play.
Then, the Winter Soldier activated. Dëmin, who’s already made clutch scoring a habit, hit a triple after a superman-like rebound from a redemptive Sharpe. Dëmin hadn’t scored until there were around three minutes left in regulation, but wanted overtime, and got it.
Egor had more to say in the overtime period, but didn’t get the last laugh. After both teams went back and forth for a bit to open the extra frame, Dëmin nailed an even deeper one after a jump ball to give the Nets their first lead since the first quarter. Orlando responded with another dunk, which Dëmin again traded for a three, this one more otherworldly than the rest…
“It was amazing,” Dëmin said of the crowd after his shots. “I thought it was awesome. I think it helped us a lot.”
With all the momentum in the world, that rocking crowd behind him, and a lead that felt twice its size given the nature of the game, Brooklyn looked certain to complete the comeback this time.
But wacky game needed an ending of the same nature. So, Paolo Banchero called bank…
That shot finally brought us to our finish after all those turns and full-loops. Brooklyn had lost, and Fernández and Dëmin knew it, but they also acknowledged the positives postgame.
“It was one of those moments when, you know, in high school, when I was a kid, I was shooting alone in the gym, and thinking about moments like this, and kind of going through things like, I’m getting the shot to win…It was just one of those moments that I was kind of manifesting when I was a kid. So, it felt really, really good.”
“Give credit to Pablo, amazing player, and amazing players make amazing shots,” Fernández said. “I also think our guys made amazing shots. Proud of all of them. You know, towards the end, Noah, Egor, and Mike scored throughout the whole game. It was really good to see, and it was good to see the defense in the fourth.”
For a year and a half now, the Nets have had an odd objective of playing winning basketball without actually winning games. It’s an near impossible target to hit, but they did so tonight.
Final: Orlando Magic 104, Brooklyn Nets 103
Trade Talk
Trae Young trade buzz hovered over almost every NBA game tonight, ours included. That said, Jake Fischer and Brett Siegel did their best to end any speculation of Ice Trae coming to the Big Apple. In his substack with Marc Stein, Fischer noted that while Young expressed an interest in Brooklyn and Minnesota as destinations, neither team reciprocates that feeling. Siegel published a similar report.
All checked out, as Shams Charania reported a few minutes before the end of tonight’s contest that the Washington Wizards won the Young “sweepstakes” if you can even still call them that. For the Nets, at least that means one less tank competitor.
Milestone Watch
- Michael Porter Jr. has tied his career high with eight 3-pointers tonight against Orlando (8-for-14), originally accomplished on 4/24/21 with Denver vs. Houston.
Next Up
Brooklyn stays home on Friday to host the Los Angeles Clipper for the first time this season. LA beat the Nets both times last year by a combined 91 points (yikes!). That said, hard times have since fallen upon James Harden and company. The Clippers resemble on of the league’s messiest disappointments this year. Despite having won seven of their last 10, they’re still 14-23 and currently outside the Play-In looking in. The game tips off at 7:30 p.m. EST.
