BROOKLYN — On the Nets’ Stranger Things night Thursday, the Jazz flipped the game upside down and rode a strong fourth quarter to beat Brooklyn 123-110.
With Brooklyn missing their two leading scorers in Michael Porter Jr. and Cam Thomas, it looked like Utah could be in a good position to start its two-game road trip to the Empire State with a win; however, the Nets got big contributions from other players as they rode an early lead for much of the game.
Brooklyn did a good job of controlling the game for much of the contest and got plenty of great contributions from their bench and rookies. Leading by as much as 15, the Nets looked poised to claim their third consecutive victory, but a late rally by Utah stunned the home crowd.
The Jazz were down some players of their own, including none of their centers — Jusuf Nurkic and Kevin Love were ruled out and Walker Kessler is already sidelined for the rest of the season. Nurkic was out with a rib contusion, while the 37-year-old Love was out for rest.
Kyle Filipowski replaced Nurkic in the starting lineup, finishing with 15 points, eight rebounds and five assists. The duo of Lauri Markkanen and Keyonte George continued to carry the Jazz offense, with the pair combining for 59 points. Markkanen went for 30 points and grabbing eight rebounds to lead the duo.
George finished with 29 points, while dishing out 10 assists to go along with his five rebounds — 18 of George’s points came in the second half to help lead the rally for Utah after it trailed by 9 entering the break.
It was the third double-double of the season for George, who continues to be a key playmaker for the Jazz.
The Jazz made a run to tie the game at 72-72 in the third quarter before Brooklyn made a 11-2 run to retake the lead. It was rookie Danny Wolf who helped lead the charge for the Nets in the quarter, with head coach Jordi Fernandez deploying a big lineup against the center-less Jazz.
Wolf was Brooklyn’s primary ball handler for much of the second half as he saw the court with fellow big men Noah Clowney and Nic Claxton. Wolf finished with 17 points and nine rebounds off the bench, as Zaire Williams added 23 to give the Nets’ reserves 63 points on Thursday night.
Clowney got off to a hot start for Brooklyn as the third-year player scored 14 points in the first quarter before ending the contest with a team-high 29 points.
As Utah entered the final quarter down 9, Will Hardy’s squad exploded for 42 points, while outscoring the Nets by 22. Made shots from Brice Sensabaugh and Kyle Anderson helped the Jazz pull close before George and Markkanen took over late, giving Utah its first back-to-back wins of the season.
Thursday night was the first time Utah fans got to see their squad take on Egor Demin, who played his lone college season at BYU before being selected by Brooklyn with the eighth overall pick in this past summer’s NBA draft.
Demin struggled in the game and scored just 3 points on 1-of-4 shooting (all from 3-point range) in just 20 minutes of action. He added just two assists and one rebound in the loss.
“The energy was not great but he was dealing with some upper respiratory issues,” Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez said. “He tried really hard and the intentions were in the right place, it was just my decision. He’s going to come back, he has high standards for himself and he’s going to be better.”
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