{"id":589354,"date":"2026-02-08T00:11:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T00:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/589354\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T00:11:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T00:11:17","slug":"brooklyn-nets-throttle-tanking-washington-wizards-win-127-113","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/589354\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn Nets throttle tanking Washington Wizards, win 127-113"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NBA trade deadline has come and gone. Contenders buffed out their scratches, owners ducked their taxes, and now, Tank Season awaits the rest of us serfs. With two months left in the regular season, injury reports and funky substitution patterns provoke cries for Adam Silver and essays questioning whether Giannis Antetokounmpo publicly embracing Kalshi as a shareholder is a greater threat to the NBA\u2019s integrity than Keshon Gilbert getting 29 minutes in a regular-season game for the Washington Wizards. It\u2019s a dark, confusing world out there.<\/p>\n

But at least it\u2019s funny. Few sporting events capture this like a true NBA Tank-Off, so shameless and so absurd, with its participants forbidden from acknowledging it as such. World-class athletes not just concerned fans praying for them to turn the ball over and miss shots, but their bosses too. Would NBA League Pass really be worth it without this perverse spectacle?<\/p>\n

On Saturday afternoon, the 14-36 Wizards held up their end of the bargain. Forget some legitimately injured vets like Anthony Davis and Trae Young, they put ten guys on the injury report. Bilal Coulibaly, Alex Sarr, and Kyshawn George were questionable with injury, and none of them played. At the very least, the Wiz had the excuse of a back-to-back (facing the Miami Heat on Sunday) and four wins in their last six tries.<\/p>\n

The 13-37 Brooklyn Nets did not, and they did not partake in the calculated fun. They handed in their cleanest injury report of the season; even trade acquisitions Josh Minott and Ochai Agbaji were available, though neither played. Perhaps Brooklyn didn\u2019t learn their lesson from last season\u2026<\/p>\n

Maybe ownership believes you can\u2019t turn the tank up to ten before the All-Star break. Maybe Michael Porter Jr.\u2018s knee is 100% fine and they didn\u2019t want a call from the league office, maybe they thought there was no way to lose to the skeleton-crew Wizards. Maybe, they just wanted Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez to see his team play well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we\u2019re not changing, you have to play hard and with purpose,\u201d said Fern\u00e1ndez pregame. \u201cIf we find that balance, we\u2019ll see a competitive group. It\u2019s not that hard, you just have to be committed. Lately we haven\u2019t found those two things together.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the Nets were finally on the other side of a lopsided first quarter. The hosts led 46-20, then 80-47 by halftime. Of course, it marked their highest point-total in any half this season, and Fern\u00e1ndez got what he wanted: \u201cI mean, playing extremely hard and with purpose. I thought we, like you said, found ways to score the ball. And I think that second group had a great thing going, from defense to offense, running the floor, doing the right things. And I think that group, if you look all the way through, that\u2019s the one that gave us the win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fern\u00e1ndez isn\u2019t lying. Michael Porter Jr. led the team in scoring with 23 points on 8-of-16 shooting, and Nolan Traore played well in another start, putting up 15\/3\/4 on 6-of-7 shooting with one lone turnover, but it was the bench that truly embarrassed Washington. To no surprise, the fringe NBA players off their bench couldn\u2019t handle Day\u2019Ron Sharpe, who mauled his way to 19\/9\/4.<\/p>\n

Nor could they handle Sharpe\u2019s partner in the front-court, Danny Wolf. The two were attached at the hip on Saturday, sharing all their minutes together. Wolf dropped 16\/7\/6, with three of those assists to Sharpe down low.<\/p>\n

The rookie was highly complimentary of the vet, postgame: \u201cHe\u2019s playing 20 minutes, and he\u2019s giving you 19\/9\/4, I don\u2019t know how many bigs in the NBA are doing that. I think his superpower is rebounding, right? And a lot of his points come off put-backs, and you might just look at that as an easy bucket, but it\u2019s not easy to do \u2026 As you play with someone more, you\u2019re gonna get that confidence in one another, and you\u2019re gonna learn to play off each other, and it makes the game so much easier for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wolf stole the show, though. He made two threes and shot 7-of-11 without a turnover, all of his problem areas becoming strengths at least for one shining afternoon. Most importantly, Wolf seemed calmer, more self-assured than Nets fans have seen him for months. Not coincidentally, without Traore or Cam Thomas in the backcourt, he had the ball in his hands much more.<\/p>\n

Said Wolf: \u201cThe last month, two months, it\u2019s just a lot of learning. I was playing off the ball, and for me, it\u2019s just like everything felt \u2014 I felt a little bit too sped up, and there\u2019s gonna be games where that\u2019s my role. And then when coach does give me the ball and trust me with it, it\u2019s on me to make the right play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Egor D\u00ebmin only had four points, going 0-of-5 from three. Still, the rest of the rookies all had shining moments, whether it was an athletic finish from Drake Powell at the rim, a fast-break dunk for Ben Saraf, or this sexy Traore bucket\u2026<\/p>\n

The Wizards hit some 3-pointers in the final third of the game, and as a result, Brooklyn\u2019s starters somehow ended up losing their minutes \u2026 not that it really mattered. Washington almost almost made it a game, but thanks to Brooklyn\u2019s big bench, the game was over long before halftime.<\/p>\n

The Nets shot an incomprehensible 69.8% inside the arc on Saturday; if they had gotten hot from deep, they would\u2019ve put up 150 points. If they were gonna disregard the Tank-Off and win, at least they did it in style.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll see if the NBA Draft Lottery gods reward them for their nobility on May 10.<\/p>\n

Final Score: Brooklyn Nets 127, Washington Wizards 113<\/p>\n

Now here\u2019s some querying: All five rookies have recorded multiple assists in the past two games. Brooklyn becomes the first team in NBA history 5+ rookies do so in the same game, multiple times, since the 1980-81 New Jersey Nets.Brooklyn\u2019s 36 assists matched a season-high. Six players recorded 4+ assists, tying a franchise record.Wolf and Sharpe are the first duo in Nets history to both record at least 16\/7\/4 off the bench in the same game.Brooklyn outscored Washing by 26 in the first quarter, their best point differential in a quarter since going +29 against Warriors in the first on 12\/21\/22.<\/p>\n

The Nets were completely healthy on Saturday! Only the two-ways, down in Long Island, missed this one. Which means that, yes, Ziaire Williams was a DNPCD, as well as Jalen Wilson, Agbaji, and Minott.<\/p>\n

Yep, it\u2019s that time of the year:<\/p>\n

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

Gary Dineen\/NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Brooklyn Nets continue their homestand with a game against the Chicago Bulls and their revolving door of guards. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET on Monday evening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NBA trade deadline has come and gone. Contenders buffed out their scratches, owners ducked their taxes, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3780],"tags":[7,6,51809,682,468,3892,683],"class_list":{"0":"post-589354","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-wizards","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-nets-scores","11":"tag-washington","12":"tag-washington-wizards","13":"tag-washingtonwizards","14":"tag-wizards"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116032117192928246","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589354","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=589354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}