The Nets opened their preseason by cycling through every healthy player in a resounding 124-90 rout at Charlotte.
Veteran forwards Michael Porter Jr. and Julius Randle leading the way wasn’t a surprise. The white-hot shooting was.
The Nets, who were dead last in the league in offensive rating and 3-point percentage last season, shot 55.0 percent overall and 20-for-37 from deep Tuesday.
They carved up short-handed Charlotte up with 31 assists and forced 25 turnovers to pile up a 25-6 edge in fast-break points.
“Yeah, it was a good feeling obviously,” coach Jordi Fernández said. “First game preseason we accomplished playing pretty much everybody that was available. Everybody won their minutes. That’s important — to play hard for 48 minutes.
“We struggled with turnovers in the first half. [We] ended up with three — I don’t count the last one for holding it — three turnovers in the second. So that’s pretty good, 31 assists on 44 made field goals, that’s great. Defensively, the ball pressure turned them over 25 times for 31 points. The only thing we struggled with was the 3-point line. We have to be better at getting out there and finding shooters.”
Porter had a team-high 16 points on 4-for-6 shooting from deep, while Randle added 13 points and three assists.
Porter and Randle largely played on different teams early in camp, so they’re still getting on the same page.
“Yeah, just getting a feel for each other,” Fernández said. “It’s important that they understand, Mike, they have to find him at the 3-point line. Julius, he can score in different ways, get into the paint and then kick it out. And it was cool, because I think Julius found Mike once, but then Mike found Julius once for a 3. So it’s good.
“They’re trying to get those actions together. And it’s been a good first step. We want to keep working on ramping those minutes up and have better feel with the different groups that we’ll have out there. But those two did an amazing job.”
Day’Ron Sharpe added eight points and seven boards. But for a team starved for rim protection, his two blocks and plus-19 in 17:56 were auspicious signs.
Drake Powell, who struggled at summer league, had nine points on 4-for-6 shooting, finished a game-high plus-20 and hit his only 3.
The Nets played everybody other than injured first-round picks Mikel Brown Jr. (ankle) and Joshua Jefferson (lower back), but Charlotte didn’t have that option. They were without Brandon Miller, Kon Knueppel and Coby White, but still hit 16-for-36 from deep.
“When you win every quarter, it’s a good sign. We had different groups out there and they did whatever it took to get wins every quarter. That mindset is important,” Fernández said. “It was a closer first half, but very happy with the intentions, very happy with the effort and the good things you see quarter by quarter.”
