Even without the win totals, talent, or even fan pull in their own home city, the Brooklyn Nets pride themselves on their ability to show up for work every single day. The hard hats, plastic lunch pails, and steel-toed boots thing may be long gone from the NBA, with Blake Griffin now in the broadcast booth and Patty Mills out of the league, but its spirit lingers nonetheless in some places… and one of them is in Brooklyn.
That gritty attitude’s not unique to the Nets, no matter how much Jordi Fernández talks about it, or Brooklyn’s marketing team tries to claim it. However, it sure felt foreign early tonight in the “fighting” city of Philadelphia.
In fairness, everyone wants an easy day of work before going into the holiday break, and Nets also looked to be in the giving mood early in game no. 28. It took seven possessions for Brooklyn to finally see a shot go down — and even that was just one out of two free throws.
But their Christmas spirit didn’t last long. No. Led by a notorious grinch and some youthful elves, Brooklyn decided they were going to bah humbug all over the city of Brotherly Love.
Michael Porter Jr., in particular, wasn’t fancying any red-and-ermine Victorian era decor this evening. Not at all. He wore a smile on his face all night rather than a cold scowl but other than that, he played a convincing Ebenezer Scrooge in this holiday scenario. And what he did early, one of Father Christmas’ elves, straight from the cold of Moscow, did at game’s end.
So in the end, just as it did in Dickens’ Christmas Carol, it went from humbug to merry.
Curious Mike started things off by dropping 12 points in a little over two minutes in the heart of the first period, simultaneously saying “not so fast” to the Sixers hoping to scurry off with a free win.
Porter Jr. ended up scoring 14 of Brooklyn’s 27 points in the quarter. Those are the second most points he’s had in a quarter all season, just trailing the 16 he put up against Boston on November 21st.
“That’s what All-Stars do,” Nic Claxton said of MPJ. “They come out and they play at an extremely high level every single night. They demand double teams. They make their teammates better, they make the game easier for everybody else. He was really good for us tonight, getting us going, especially in the first half, and that’s what we expect from him every night.”
Claxton was able to support Porter postgame, but couldn’t do the same in that first quarter. Joel Embiid came out looking for his shot to lead the Brooklyn center into foul trouble, as Clax picked up two personals less than four minutes into the contest. We were then gifted s a heavy dose of Day’Ron Sharpe in the frame, who ultimately just missed a double-double tonight with nine points and 11 rebounds. Danny Wolf got some first period burn as well. Nolan Traoré joined him on the floor too, making it the second straight game where the rookie received non-garbage time minutes.
Ben Saraf, who was activated before the game, never got in, even after setting the G-League ablaze yesterday. Brooklyn probably could have used him and his touted on-court poise though in the second quarter, where the Net offense hit a few bumps. Brooklyn turned it over six times leading to seven extra Philadelphia points in the period, which allowed them to take a momentary lead…
Finally, among elves there was Egor Demin who kept up his recent string of hard work.
So, when behind, or under their high-flying hosts, the Nets went back to what’s been working for them: suffocating defense. Tyrese Maxey seemed to struggle breathing the most. The league’s third leading scorer was held scoreless for until the 2:02 mark of the second. At one point in the second period, he and Sixers didn’t score for roughly three minutes, ushering the Nets into a 15-3 run.
“He just wasn’t in a good flow tonight,” Claxton said of Maxey. “I think he was a little frustrated. Some things may have been getting in his way, a little bit out there. I think I might have flustered him a little bit.”
Speaking of Claxton, he refused to stay silent after his quite first quarter, unlike Maxey. Igniting the break after many of those Sixer misses, he added 10 second quarter points while shooting a perfect 4-4 from the floor. Porter Jr. got his way to 25 first half points, the most he’s had in a game in his career. The Nets added to their lead in the process, and went into the half up 63-57.
“It was big, we were in the game, we had the lead, and Mike was a big part of it,” Fernández said. “As you guys know, he makes open shots, he makes contested shots, and he makes impossible shots. He was huge for us.”
Embiid led Philadelphia at that point with 19 points but ran into trouble, or Terance Mann, soon after that. He tripped over Brooklyn’s combo guard in the third quarter’s opening possession. He stayed on the deck for a while after the collision, and after getting up, went straight back to the locker room. He’d eventually return but without the aggression which fueled Philly’s offense early.
Embiid’s momentary exit seemed like a call for Maxey or Paul George to turn things up, but it was old friend Andre Drummond who answered. The journeyman big scored six points in the third’s first four minutes to keep the scoring up for the then Embiid-less Sixers. He took a page out of Brooklyn’s book to do so, with many of those buckets being second chance points, which the Nets outscored Philadelphia in 11-4 during the first half.
Meanwhile, Maxey looked like someone with the ground shrinking under him. He kept clanking the step backs were usually see him bury. He also picked up his fourth foul of the game less than halfway through the period after crashing into Dëmin, who finished with 20 points tonight, began his second half onslaught from downtown.
As mentioned, Dëmin would have more to say later on, including five dimes and four more triples. But for as majestic as that hit for was for him, Traoré was the rookie guard to get Brooklyn’s offense really humming in the third period. Some might call the Sixers throwing two at him an ludicrous defensive decision. I’ll just call it the Nets eating what’s in front of them…
Ziaire Williams and Tyrese Martin mixed in triples not long after Sharpe’s, also benefitting from the Brooklyn’s pass-heavy offense leveraging its way around Sixer blitzes. The Nets promptly went up 89-77 going into the fourth.
There, boos from the always friendly Philadelphia crowd started to rain down. The Sixers started the period 0-of-5 from the field. Traoré especially did well staying in front of the Jared McCain in the process. McCain joined his backcourt mate in the dog house tonight, as he and Maxey combined to shoot just 6-25 from the field during the contest.
With 7:11 to go, the Nets led by 19, their largest advantage of the night. Philly then started throwing a few extra stunts at Brooklyn, and their frenzied defensive attack halted the Nets offense for a few minutes. A triple from George, only his team’s fifth for the game made it a nine point game with roughly three and a half to play.
But even as the pressure mounted, the Nets did all the right things to dial it back a few notches. For a second straight game, Dëmin delivered “silencer” shots, except this time actually in front of opposing fans. His two quick triples put the Nets up 14 with under two to play. Maxey even assisted on one of them…
While Fernández acknowledged the importance of those makes, he also noted that’s he’s been impressed with the other aspects of Dëmin’s game lately and explained the mindset he wants him to carry going forward.
“I think it’s good when you see the shots go in,” he said. “I’m very happy for him, but what I’m very proud of him, is, there’s two possessions that he guards the ball, he checks the drive, he’s physical, he kept Maxey in front one or two times, and with McCain, and that’s the growth that I want to see — how his physicality is getting better on both sides of the floor, because I know he’s going to make shots. I know he’s going to find his teammates, he got five assists, and he’s got to keep shooting.
“Sometimes they’re going to go in, sometimes they’re not going to go in, but he’s a great shooter…Right now, I want him to have the mindset of going into the next game and having a good game whether the shots go in or not.”
McCain hit two threes with under a minute which gave them license to play the foul game, but all that did was put a few more minutes between them and their time off. The cold-blooded kid from Moscow iced the game with free throws — and introduced the Nets to their eighth win of the season.
In the post-game, Demin provided analysis of his game, team-oriented but cold-blooded…
Final: Brooklyn Nets 114, Philadelphia 76ers 106
The Nets have allowed 375 total points (93.8 per game) over their last four games, their fewest in a four-game span since 11/5-12, 2022. They have allowed 102.7 points per game across nine games in December, the fewest in the NBA.Egor Dëmin’s five 3-pointers are tied for the most of his career in a game (11/28 vs. PHI). It is his sixth game this season with at least four 3-pointers, the second most among rookies this season (Kon Knueppel, 16) and second most by a rookie in franchise history (Kerry Kittles, 9). Demin’s 54 threes this season are second among rookies, behind only Knueppel’s 109.Dëmin has also scored 14+ points in four straight games, joining Cam Thomas (eight straight games in 2021-22) and Jarrett Allen (four in 2017-18) as the only Nets rookies with such a streak in the past 10 seasons.Nic Claxton now has 85 double-doubles in his career, one behind tying Sam Bowie (86) for the eighth-most in franchise history.
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Tank commanders, rejoice. Brooklyn’s next game will feature a more formidable than any we’ve seen in weeks, and certainly more star power via the Ant Man. The Nets will take three days off and then hit the road for Minnesota on Saturday. The game is scheduled to tipoff at 8:00 p.m. ET.