{"id":548557,"date":"2026-01-20T09:07:52","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T09:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/548557\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T09:07:52","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T09:07:52","slug":"brooklyn-nets-get-burnt-by-phoenix-suns-lose-126-117","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/548557\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn Nets get burnt by Phoenix Suns, lose 126-117"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Brooklyn Nets hosted the Phoenix Suns at the Barclays Center Monday evening. It was the first time in a while where the two teams meeting didn\u2019t feel like running into an ex out in public.<\/p>\n

No Kevin Durant. No Cam Johnson. No Mikal Bridges. Not even any of Phoenix\u2019s future first rounders were in the backdrop tonight \u2014 just a whole lot of buckets on a day to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.<\/p>\n

Brooklyn and Phoenix collectively began tonight shooting 6-of-10 from deep. Two were put in Drake Powell, who returned to the starting lineup with Egor D\u00ebmin held out for injury management\u2026<\/p>\n

Although Powell\u2019s 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. (Cam Thomas was also out for injury management.)<\/p>\n

Despite the group effort, the Brooklyn\u2019s offense was overshadowed in the first, and for most of the game. While the Nets came out hot, the Suns were white dwarfs, posting 71\/67 splits in the first quarter. Dillon Brooks added seven points while shooting 4-of-5 from the field. Phoenix also controlled the game\u2019s pace, grabbing eight points on the break.<\/p>\n

The Nets (naturally) caught up a bit when Nolan Traor\u00e9 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\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just grateful just to be out here,\u201d Williams said of his return. \u201cWoke up one morning feeling fine, and then I ended up sick, and missing games, and it was just a reminder of just how anything can be taken away from you by any time\u2026I missed playing with these guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

After going scoreless in the opening frame, MPJ dropped 13 points while shooting 5-6 from the field. Traor\u00e9 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. He didn\u2019t get any more in the second half\u2026but still finished the game as a +4.<\/p>\n

Williams also hit two threes in the period\u2019s final two four minutes. Mann also put one in for submission seconds before the deadline\u2026<\/p>\n

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 63\/46\/91 splits as a team at half, where theu led the Nets by a 72-68 tally.<\/p>\n

The Nets also probably threw one too many high doubles at Booker, who had the poise and precision all night to pass out of them and find open shooters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were kind of giving them that shot, trying to live with that rather than Booker ISO,\u201d Mann said. \u201cSo, just the ability to make shots down the stretch. They\u2019re a veteran team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even as the shots continued to fall for Phoenix, the Nets did well to keep the deficit from fully reinflating in the third. But while the Phoenix lead didn\u2019t 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\u2019s first eight minutes after getting 11 in the entire first half.<\/p>\n

Fern\u00e1ndez said the game was \u201ccalled like a rugby match,\u201d post game. Williams also noted he felt there were one or two wrongful whistles, but he also tipped his cap to his old teammate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love Dillon to death, man,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s my guy. That\u2019s my big brother. He taught me so much. It\u2019s really dope to see him really flourish this year. I feel like he\u2019s an all star, in my opinion\u2026He\u2019s a great teammate. I hate playing against them but love him on your team. His competitiveness is second to none and I definitely learned a lot of tips and tricks from him.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2026<\/p>\n

But the mounting pressure from Brooklyn only caused Phoenix\u2019s offensive crystallize and its ball 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re a good ball club, man,\u201d Williams said. \u201cThey play really well together, ball was moving.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nets had possesson down nine with a little over a minute to go, but could only draw up a Powell step back three out of the timeout. It clanked off the side rim. Down too much and too late to make playing the foul game acceptable, Brooklyn didn\u2019t down quietly, but a bit quieter than usual.<\/p>\n

Final: Phoenix Suns 126, Brooklyn Nets 117<\/p>\n

Terance Mann\u2019s seven assists in the first half against the Suns are tied for his most in a game this season (fourth time) and tied the most in a half in his career (2\/8\/22, LAC at MEM).This was Nolan Traor\u00e9\u2019s second career half with 10+ points, joining his 14 points in the second half last night against Chicago.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a common misconception that the All-Star break marks the halfway point in the NBA regular season. That\u2019s usually when we\u2019re about two-thirds of the way there. Believe it or not, tonight was Brooklyn\u2019s 41st game, meaning they\u2019re now at that halfway point. Here was Ziaire Williams\u2019 answer on what the Nets have learned and want to take into second half:<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, for sure, man, just a whole list of things. Off the top of my mind, we just got to start better. We start off 0-7 and we figured out, but even with tonight, we figured it out, and came up just short. But it\u2019s all a growing process, growing pains, and the best part is, we have a full locker room of guys who want to win and wan\u2019t to compete at the highest level. I feel like that\u2019s the hardest part, is finding a group that loves each other and enjoys going to war with each other every night, and we have that, and that\u2019s the culture that Jordi and the rest of the staff are building. So, we\u2019ll figure it out, and there\u2019s a lot of better days ahead, just got to stay in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

No change in the Tankathon rankings. Nets still is sixth, still two games out of fourth.<\/p>\n

The only Net to miss tonight\u2019s game not for injury management or a G-League assignment was Day\u2019Ron Sharpe. The Nets tagged him with an illness\/throat contusion injury designation pregame. We\u2019ll monitor the situation and update as we learn more.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Brooklyn hasn\u2019t beaten their cross town rival since January of 2023, and even with the Nets sporting the league\u2019s fifth-worst record, it feels like they\u2019ll 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 p.m. ET at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brooklyn Nets hosted the Phoenix Suns at the Barclays Center Monday evening. It was the first time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3767],"tags":[7,670,247,3803,6,671,51809],"class_list":{"0":"post-548557","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn-nets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-brooklyn-nets","11":"tag-brooklynnets","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-nets","14":"tag-nets-scores"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115926644533594160","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}