{"id":577227,"date":"2026-02-02T12:18:57","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T12:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/577227\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T12:18:57","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T12:18:57","slug":"brooklyn-nets-blown-to-smithereens-by-detroit-pistons-lose-130-77","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/577227\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn Nets blown to smithereens by Detroit Pistons, lose 130-77"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Brooklyn Nets finally won a game without Michael Porter Jr. Friday, defeating<\/a> the Utah Jazz on the second night of a hellacious back-to-back that saw them fly in from Denver the night before. Brooklyn had lost their first eight games when MPJ sat, as he typically does in one half of a back-to-back, and while the Jazz entered with just 15 wins to their name, a starting lineup with three rookies would have to get the job done.<\/p>\n

They did, led by a 25-point homecoming performance from the former BYU Cougar Egor D\u00ebmin. But on Sunday evening \u2026 whoosh. D\u00ebmin, Nolan Traore, Danny Wolf, and the rest of the Nets faced a much taller task, again without MPJ. Not only was it the infamous final game of a long road trip, but they were facing the Detroit Pistons, sitting atop the Eastern Conference largely thanks to their relentlessly physical, athletic play.<\/p>\n

Example: Egor Demin began being harassed by Ausar Thompson on one end while guarding Cade Cunningham on the other. The young Nets, however, held their own early. All ten Nets who played in the first half scored, led by Nic Claxton and Cam Thomas, even Ben Saraf dropped a highlight\u2026<\/p>\n

Then the referees called the game, awarding both teams a draw, sending everybody home happy.<\/p>\n

Just kidding. One hour later, the Nets were \u2014 stop me if you\u2019ve heard this before \u2014 fighting to avoid their worst loss in franchise history. The Pistons went on a 37-6 run that bridged halftime; here\u2019s a quick recap of that run\u2026<\/p>\n

Detroit bullied the Nets, who looked utterly helpless after the switch flipped. Turnovers led to run-outs which led to dunks, the crowd getting louder and louder as the home team morphed into the Harlem Globetrotters with ease. The Pistons scored 37 points off turnovers, a ridiculous total that doesn\u2019t include Detroit baiting Brooklyn into layup attempts just to boom them off the backboard.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t help that the Nets shot just 22.6% from three, not only deflated by the circumstances but undoubtedly worn out by the road trip. Even D\u00ebmin\u2019s record-breaking streak ended: After 34 consecutive games with a 3-pointer (the most ever for a rookie), he went 0-of-4 from the floor in this one, putting up 3\/0\/1.<\/p>\n

As for the other rookies, Saraf also went 0-of-4 with four assists and no turnovers, Nolan Traore 2-of-7, Drake Powell 3-of-7, and Danny Wolf 2-of-9 and a team-worst -43 plus-minus. Unlike D\u00ebmin\u2019s return to the Beehive State, this was not a banner day for the 2025 draft class.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou got to learn from games like this, because you play against a very good team that plays consistently hard,\u201d said Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez. \u201cAnd we don\u2019t do it in a consistent way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Detroit was led by 21 points from All-Star reserve Jalen Duren, but everybody contributed. They stole the ball 17 times. Daniss Jenkins put Wolf on a poster. Meanwhile, the Nets scored 38 points in the first 18 minutes, then 39 points in the final 30 minutes.<\/p>\n

Said Fern\u00e1ndez: \u201cYou know, we\u2019ll run it back, we\u2019ll hold them accountable, we\u2019ll give him a hug, whatever the case may be, to go out there and play better than this.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, the visitors did not lose by 60 points. Hooray! Instead, Brooklyn lost by 53 points, the third-worst mark in franchise history. At least it wasn\u2019t against the New York Knicks this time.<\/p>\n

Final Score: Detroit Pistons 130, Brooklyn Nets 77<\/p>\n

The Brooklyn Nets have now lost a game by 50+ points four times in the last three seasons. Only the Portland Trail Blazers, from 2021-2024, have ever matched that feat.Nets have now lost four games by 35 points or more this season, the two 50-point losses, plus a 37-point bummer vs. the Clippers a week ago and a 36-point disaster to the Knicks early in the season.On the other side of the ledger, the Pistons winning margin was the biggest in franchise history surpassing the 52-point margin set in a January 2002 win over Boston.<\/p>\n

The Nets are now 13-35 which moves them up in the Tankathon rankings<\/a> to the No. 4 spot, tied with the Wizards. They\u2019re a half-game out of third, where the Pacers sit, a game out of second (Pelicans owed the Hawks) and 2.5 games behind the golden ticket now held by the Kings.<\/p>\n

MPJ misses out on All-Star Game<\/p>\n

The NBA announced the All-Star reserves on Sunday afternoon, and absent from the list was Michael Porter Jr. We knew he wouldn\u2019t be a starter, but given that he finished 10th, 9th, and 10th in fan, player, and media voting respectively, a reserve selection seemed possible for the Brooklyn Nets\u2019 leading scorer. Alas, the coaches did not view Porter Jr. as one of the East\u2019s dozen best players.<\/p>\n

Porter Jr. still has an outside chance to become Brooklyn\u2019s first All-Star representative since Kevin Durant; Adam Silver will need to choose at least one injury replacement (Giannis Antetokounmpo).<\/p>\n

As it stands, is he a snub? NetsDaily will answer that question tomorrow.<\/p>\n

As previously mentioned, MPJ did not miss this one due to injury, but rather personal reasons. He had previously posted on social media about a death in the family.<\/p>\n

Noah Clowney missed his fifth straight game with a low back sprain (no longer \u201clower back soreness\u201d) while Ziaire Williams missed his third straight with a left calf contusion. Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez did not provide a timeline for either player in pregame.<\/p>\n

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

Luke Hales\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Brooklyn Nets return home to face two of the NBA\u2019s biggest stars. Tip-off against the Los Angeles Lakers is set for 7:30 p.m. ET. on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brooklyn Nets finally won a game without Michael Porter Jr. Friday, defeating the Utah Jazz on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3773],"tags":[7,296,188,3860,6,51809,297],"class_list":{"0":"post-577227","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-pistons","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-detroit","10":"tag-detroit-pistons","11":"tag-detroitpistons","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-nets-scores","14":"tag-pistons"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116001005773969390","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577227","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=577227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}