{"id":662242,"date":"2026-03-17T04:35:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T04:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/662242\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T04:35:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T04:35:13","slug":"nets-blazers-make-special-history-with-three-israelis-in-same-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/662242\/","title":{"rendered":"Nets, Blazers make &#8216;special&#8217; history with three Israelis in same game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With the Nets hosting Portland \u2014 and rising Trail Blazers star Deni Avdija taking on Nets rookies Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf \u2014 Monday marked the first time three Israelis ever faced off in the NBA.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, it\u2019s special,\u201d said Nets coach Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez. \u201cWhen other countries outside the US and Europe can be represented with three players here, it means the world, and it\u2019s a special day that everybody has to enjoy. And I think they are already. \u2026I don\u2019t know Deni, but I\u2019m sure he\u2019s excited to play. I know Ben and Danny are.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd that\u2019s good. It\u2019s one of the two times that we\u2019ll see this and hopefully for many years, see how these guys grow. Obviously Deni, a career year and how much better he has gotten. And then our two young guys, they\u2019re getting better. And I want to see this matchup over the years and how interesting, how cool it is to see them play against each other.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.66699219;display:block\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38802496\" width=\"394\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/user-expressly-acknowledges-agrees-downloading-123806795.jpg\" alt=\"Ben Saraf and Deni Avdija pose for a photo after a jersey swap.\" class=\"wp-image-38802496\"  \/>Deni Avdija (R.) and Ben Saraf pose together after the Nets-Blazers game on March 16, 2026.  NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.66699219;display:block\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38802497\" width=\"394\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/user-expressly-acknowledges-agrees-downloading-123798523.jpg\" alt=\"Danny Wolf #2 of the Brooklyn Nets dribbles the ball during the game against the Portland Trail Blazers.\" class=\"wp-image-38802497\"  \/>Danny Wolf dribbles during the Nets-Blazers game on March 16, 2026.  NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Wolf started a third straight game with Michael Porter Jr. out.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He came into Monday averaging 12.2 points and 6.2 rebounds over his prior ten games before Portland.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Porter missed a third straight game with a sprained right ankle Monday vs. Portland, but has resumed on-court work and appears to be close to a return.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, I\u2019m not qualified to talk about grades [on his sprain], but I can share that he did form shooting in the last game that we played, and [Monday] is going to be his first workout,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said before Brooklyn hosted the Trail Blazers. \u201cSo let\u2019s see how he feels after it. He\u2019s getting better, and then we\u2019ll assess.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Porter has sat out four of the past five games.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>With 14 games left in the regular season, the Nets host the reigning champion Thunder on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Backup center Day\u2019Ron Sharpe (left thumb UCL tear) and rookie lottery pick Egor D\u00ebmin (left plantar fascia injury management) have both already been ruled out for the season. Veteran Terance Mann missed Monday\u2019s tilt with left Achilles soreness and Noah Clowney was simply rested.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Saraf was available after having been listed as questionable with a left calf contusion.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Nets started rookies Wolf, Nolan Traore and Drake Powell, along with Ziaire Williams and Nic Claxton.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Portland\u2019s Damian Lillard and Shaedon Sharpe were both out. Chinese rookie Hansen Yang was with the G-League Remix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the Nets hosting Portland \u2014 and rising Trail Blazers star Deni Avdija taking on Nets rookies Ben&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3784],"tags":[7,601,247,12380,6,687,471,3967,66,1617],"class_list":["post-662242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-portland-trail-blazers","tag-basketball","tag-blazers","tag-brooklyn-nets","tag-israel","tag-nba","tag-portland","tag-portland-trail-blazers","tag-portlandtrailblazers","tag-sports","tag-trail-blazers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116242662621417351","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662242","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=662242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}