The Brooklyn Nets had nowhere to go but up on Friday night. Not that it wasn’t obviously, but everyone knew it, and seemed focused on it.
“Just bounce back,” said Michael Porter Jr. at practice this afternoon. “Be ready to play tonight and move on.”
“It’s about how you respond,” Fernández added pregame. “Obviously you don’t like to feel embarrassed. It was a tough feeling, but we were out there together and the best thing you can do is yesterday, watch some film, talk to each other, get some work done this morning, do it again and go out there and respond as a group…Once again, how you respond is how you should be judged.”
Indeed, Brooklyn responded, and went up, but not past the visiting Boston Celtics.
The Nets began the game in a familiar position — down several possessions. Brooklyn began the game 1-6 from the field, making it seem like we might be in store for a sequel to the MSG Massacre. But thankfully, the Egor Dëmin x Drake Powell backcourt stepped in to cut its funding. The rookie duo, starting together for the third time this season, put in 12 points in the first to give us our first quarter of competitive Nets basketball since Monday.
By the end of the night, everyone would be talking about Brooklyn’s third rookie guard, but more on that later…
Boston combatted with their ball movement, assisting on seven of 10 made field goals in the first, but also spent much of the period hunting Nolan Traoré switches with Jaylen Brown. Brooklyn did a solid job timing their help to assist the rook, holding Brown to a 2-7 shooting start. However, they couldn’t win every battle against the recently donned All-Star starter, especially with the officials seemingly on his side…
That said, the Nets went into the second quarter tied with Boston and eventually leapt out to a 46-39 lead. Traoré had his get back with seven points in just under seven minutes during the period. The speedster’s aggression wore off on his teammates as well, as the Nets outscored their rival 8-0 on the break in the first half.
But in the second, all other Brooklyn highlights naturally belonged to the Junior. MPJ looked to respond tonight from a team and individual stand point after shooting just 4-14 from the field vs New York. In the subsequent period, he added six points while shooting 2-3 from the field. By halftime, he had already surpassed his scoring output from the New York game, leading the Nets with 13 points while shooting 4-6 from the field and 2-3 from deep. He also dished three assists, including this magnet to Nic Claxton…
I’m hesitant to call third-year Claxton “prime” with him being just 26 years old, but he looked like that version of himself at the defensive end tonight. Clax showed little-to-no issue keeping up with guards after switching and swatting at the ball like a that middle-aged guy at your local pickleball court who takes the game way too seriously. He went into the half with only six points but two assists and two blocks. He finished with an 18/9/4 line.
But in true Mazzulla Ball form, Boston shot 38.3% on field goals in the first, but 47.8% from three, giving Brooklyn a 55-49 lead to start the third. The Nets maintained that lead almost the entire period, running on offense on fumes such as Claxton iso attacks vs Neemias Queta (which rendered mixed results) and backdoor cuts from Ziaire Williams. The wheels momentarily fell off after Hugo Gonzalez picked Cam Thomas’ pocket and went coast to coast, putting Boston back in front 74-73 with 2:32 to go in the third, but the Nets rebounded to carry an 81-78 lead into the fourth.
There, neither team got out to a start that’d make any highlight reels, but would fire up a bipartisan crowd. Using that word to describe tonight’s fan attendance is being generous, but that’s neither here nor there. Eight of the period’s first 15 points were second chance, including all five of Brooklyn’s buckets.
Finding a Boston bunker with that grenade, Traoré finished the night with 21 points while shooting 7-13 from the field and 2-4 from deep, continuing his solid play since coming over from Long Island. He took a seat at the 4:41 mark of the fourth and Boston back ahead, but then reentered the game as the Nets closed with a rather curious lineup featuring him, Williams, Porter Jr., and Claxton.
That gamble didn’t get Fernández back up on the Boston house by the end of the fourth, but it did get him even, and able to play another round…
Soon after coming in, Traoré hit another jumper, this one from two, that made it a five point game with about a minute left in the fourth. Two stops and two made free throws from Clowney later, and the Nets had the ball down three with 27 seconds to play. Traoré again finished the next possession, though this time with an assist to Claxton, who made it a 103-102 game with 11 seconds to play.
That kicked off the foul game, and with Anfernee Simons splitting his attempts at the line, the Nets possessed the ball down two. Porter Jr. clanked the potential game-winner, but once again, Claxton was there, cleaning up the possession and sending the Nets to their second overtime game this month.
The extra period was exactly as you’d expect one to look between two teams who just put in a gritty 48 minutes. Both teams combined to begin it 3-12 from the field. All seemed lost after the Nets missed four shots on one possession while down the same amount, but an ill-timed quick trigger three from Brown reopened the door, and the Nets crawled back through it.
The next two times down the floor, Claxton finished an alley-oop and Clowney splashed his third three of the ball game, now giving the Nets a one point lead with under a minute to go.
Then, it was Brooklyn’s turn to play the foul game. They couldn’t do it cleanly either, and it bite them at the end.
Traoré took care of business first, nailing each of his attempts at the line. Ziaire Williams then appeared to close the client call, hitting both his shots to put the Nets up five with seven seconds to go.
However, next time down the floor, Payton Pritchard hit a quick strike three to keep his team alive. Traoré again found himself at the line with a chance to extend the lead late, but went one of two, giving Boston the ball back, down three, with 2.5 seconds to play. Of course, Gonzalez used that final grain of sand in our second hourglass to tie things up again…
Porter Jr. seemed to find an extra wind in our next five minutes of free hoops, dropping six in the frame, but Boston controlled this one nonetheless. Timely finishes from Pritchard and Brown leveraging around an over-helping and understandably tired Net defense kept Brooklyn apart until the closing seconds (we’re almost done, I promise).
Brooklyn had a shot to apply pressure one last time, with the ball and down four, but ran out of 3-point fairy dust. A final miss from Porter Jr. at long last introduced us to the end of the game, and perhaps Brooklyn’s best loss of the season, which are of high value in this building this year.
Final: Boston Celtics 130, Brooklyn Nets 126
With his second 3-pointer in the first quarter against Boston, Egor Dëmin tied Bojan Bogdanović for the second most games with multiple 3PM by a rookie in franchise history (24). The franchise record is held by Kerry Kittles (50 such games in 1996-97).Traoré 21 points tonight are a career-high.
NBAE via Getty Images
No NBA team has a better record than the Los Angeles Clippers since December 23rd. No NBA team needed it more, with Los Angeles among the basement dwellers earlier in the year and in danger of giving the champs a lottery pick. They’ve still got a long way to go, but they’re back in the race at 20-24. Nets vs Clippers tips on Sunday at 9:00 p.m.