The worst team in the East upended the best.<\/p>\n
The Nets interrupted their free-fall with a stunning come-from-behind 107-105 victory at conference-leading Detroit before a sellout crowd of 20,062 at Little Caesars Arena.<\/p>\n
The comeback \u2014 from 23 points down to tie the fifth-biggest in franchise history \u2014 snapped what had been a league-worst 10-game losing skid.<\/p>\n
\u201cMan it was just it\u2019s all about keep fighting,\u201d Ziaire Williams said on YES Network. \u201cCoach told us at halftime, just keep working. We\u2019re down by 15. It\u2019s not a lot. It\u2019s easy; play one by one. Just keep chipping out on it. So, yeah, we just had a lot of juice, shots went in, got some stops and glad we got the win.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is big, This proves when we\u2019re all connected we\u2019re capable of beating any team.\u201d<\/p>\n
A big night by Michael Porter Jr. (game-high 30 points, 13 rebounds) and strong second halves from Williams and Day\u2019Ron Sharpe saw Brooklyn erase an eight-point deficit with 3:25 left.<\/p>\n
Michael Porter Jr. drives to the basket during the Nets\u2019 107-105 win over the Pistons in Detroit on March 7, 2026. Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Down 103-95, the Nets reeled off a dozen unanswered points to go up by four with less than a minute to play.<\/p>\n
There were a few nervy moments, Williams (23 points) forcing a Daniss Jenkins miss, and Sharpe (13 points, seven boards) fighting for the rebound. <\/p>\n
But even after Noah Clowney committed an unforced turnover with just seven seconds left to give Detroit life, Williams forced a Duncan Robinson miss and Jalen Duren\u2019s last-second miss sealed it.<\/p>\n
The Nets didn\u2019t have to face Pistons star guard Cade Cunningham or forward Ausar Thompson (right ankle). <\/p>\n
They won\u2019t care.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re a very good team, very well-coached, really tough,\u201d Jordi Fernandez said pregame. \u201cIt\u2019s good to play against a team like this because it tests you and we\u2019re coming here with the understanding of who we have in front of us, and we have to have that mindset for 48 minutes.<\/p>\n
Day\u2019Ron Sharpe defends during the Nets\u2019 March 7 win over the Pistons. Imagn Images<\/p>\n
\u201cFor them, it\u2019s next man up. That\u2019s the identity of the team. Obviously, Cade is a very special player, but we\u2019ll still have to deal with a lot of physicality, a lot of size, and that\u2019s what we have to be ready for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nic Claxton got thoroughly outplayed by Duren, who had 17 points and 14 rebounds. <\/p>\n
But his backup came off the bench and helped lead the Nets back.<\/p>\n
Claxton\u2019s only basket knotted the game at 13-all midway through the first quarter, but Brooklyn coughed up a 24-8 run that spanned into the second quarter.<\/p>\n
They trailed 37-21 after Jenkins\u2019 bucket 52 seconds into the quarter, and the deficit swelled to as much as 23 in the third. <\/p>\n
But Porter helped lead a comeback.<\/p>\n
Michael Porter Jr. drives to the basket during the Nets\u2019 March 7 win over the Pistons. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s offensively gifted. His ability to make tough shots \u2014 I don\u2019t know if there\u2019s a guy in our league that makes tougher shots than he does consistently,\u201d Detroit coach JB Bickerstaff said. \u201cSo, he brings a different dynamic to [the Nets] offensively.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brooklyn did try to claw back into it with a 15-3 run. <\/p>\n
Porter pulled them within 80-69 with 2:18 left in the third.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFollow all the basketball buzz in Brooklyn\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Nets by Brian Lewis, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Porter banked in a 3-pointer by Porter, and Sharpe\u2019s three offensive rebounds and putbacks got the Nets within four.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Williams\u2019 3-pointer pulled them within one, and he drilled another on a Danny Wolf offensive rebound put Brooklyn up 105-103.<\/p>\n
When Porter calmly sank a pair from the charity stripe to cap a 12-0 run, and put the Nets up 107-103 with :53.7 to play.<\/p>\n
But despite Clowney dribbling the ball out of bounds. <\/p>\n
They forced a Robinson miss from the corner and Duren to miss a jumper, and held on from there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The worst team in the East upended the best. The Nets interrupted their free-fall with a stunning come-from-behind…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3767],"tags":[7,670,247,3803,188,562,6,671,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-646419","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-detroit-pistons","13":"tag-michael-porter-jr","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-nets","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116191498601269881","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646419","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=646419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}