INDIANAPOLIS — The Nets had been humiliated at home by this Pacers team a week ago. In Sunday’s rematch, they finally got their first win of the season.
They scratched, clawed and defended their way to a 98-90 victory over shorthanded Indiana before a sellout crowd of 17,274 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Michael Porter Jr. led the way with a team-high 23 points to go with nine rebounds. Julius Randle had 20 points, six assists and five boards to go with a plus-17. Center Day’Ron Sharpe tallied his 20th career double-double with season highs of 15 points and 13 rebounds.
The struggling offense sure didn’t look smooth or crisp, shooting 41.1 percent and 13-for-39 from deep. But it was just enough against what was left of the injury-riddled Pacers.
Exactly a week earlier, the Nets (1-5) had suffered a 136-109 caning at Barclays Center. The game had devolved into a highlight-reel humiliation, with Indiana star Tyrese Haliburton even tossing the ball off the court to himself for a dunk more befitting an AND1 Mixtape.
This time, Haliburton, starting center Ivica Zubac and backup point guard T.J. McConnell all were out for Indiana. The Nets gladly cashed in, coming in winless and in desperate need of a bounce back after Friday’s wretched loss to the Pistons.
“Obviously, [we need] a lot of improvement,” head coach Jordi Fernández had said beforehand. “The first time we played this team, we had an overall bad game. I think we started and we fought in that first quarter, but then we couldn’t sustain anything, very similar to the last game against Detroit.
“I think that we’re going to show the resilience and the intensity that we showed in Boston. And so, it’s a process. We’re gonna get there with consistency, but we believe we can do it. And when we do it, we’re a very competitive team.”
The Nets showed the resilience and intensity they had in an overtime heartbreaker at Boston. This time, they got over the hump and finally won.
They got out of the gate fairly quickly — or Indiana was slow to start. The Nets led 18-12 after a Porter free throw with 1:43 left in a tooth-and-nail first quarter. They were still clinging to a 43-40 edge at the break.
The Nets came out of the locker room by scoring nine unanswered points, padding their cushion up to 12. They forced five straight misses and a turnover.
Porter started the run on a four-point play off a Randle assist two minutes into the half. Nolan Traore (16 points, six assists) followed with a 3-pointer of his own, then added a midrange to make it 52-40 with 8:42 left in the third quarter.
The Nets never truly lost momentum the rest of the way, holding Indiana at arm’s length. They saw their lead shaved down to three on an Andrew Nembhard 3-pointer that made it 75-72 with 9:29 to play but never any closer.
It was a first step, but the offense was still scattershot for large stretches. They’re grinding in first gear and underachieving on that end of the floor.
“Our inability to run — and it’s just because we’re not trying to do it,” Fernández admitted. “We have too many guys trying to inbound the ball, too many guys trying to get the outlet, instead of getting to your spots early. So, that extra effort is going to give us earlier shots, which are higher-quality shots, and our offense is just gonna have no problem with that.
“Sometimes, when you struggle, you’ve just gotta identify the problem, present it to the group, and then get better. I know there’s no time to practice, but there’s time to watch film, there’s time to walk through a lot of stuff. We’re in four games in six nights, and that’s the beauty of this league: Games keep coming. We can improve. So, they understand what they need to be better at.”
