CLEVELAND — The Nets turned what looked like a blowout into a nail-biter.
One they came up just short in, erasing a huge deficit before falling 125-121 in Cleveland on Saturday night before 19,432 at Rocket Arena, including team owner Joe Tsai.
There may not be any moral victories in the NBA, but there is progress. And from their sorry season-opening loss, this was definitely a step.
“Just strung some stops together, just stopped doing the things that were just self-inflicted. Whether it was game plan mistakes, fouling, [giving up] offensive rebounds, stuff like that. Just clean up a bit of the little things and hopefully start winning some games,” Julius Randle said. “So, we’re right there. No moral victories, but we honestly are right there.”
The Nets trailed by 22 points with 9:11 left, and by 13 with just 2:05 to play. They got within two in the waning seconds, but never over the hump.
“We fought and we gave ourselves a chance. I’m proud of how the guys, a lot of times you’re down 20, whatever, and then you just stop fighting. And it was the whole group,” coach Jordi Fernández said. “Even though the shots were not going in at times, they kept swinging and swinging and swinging.
“That’s how you get it back. Proud of them. A lot of things we could’ve done better — all of us, from my positions to the players. But I like the way we’re trending. We’re trending in a way that in the first game, we didn’t play hard enough. If we would’ve played this way in Game 1, most likely would’ve had success. So, what I told the guys is take these two experiences, a three-possession game and a two-position game, and then put it together in the third game.”
This was light years better than their desultory opening loss to the Hornets.
Michael Porter Jr. had a game-high 28 points and nine rebounds, while Julius Randle added 23 points, six boards and five assists.
Most encouraging was the breakout from Egor Dëmin, who bounced back from a shaky opener with 22 points on 5-for-10 from deep with six assists. He had 15 in the fourth quarter, including three 3s in 47 seconds to spark a 12-2 blitz.
“It was important for us to find that extra effort and the positive energy and get away from the attitude, from not being able to execute certain things and convert the rhythm towards us,” said Dëmin, adding the late run “was more successful because we started to play our own game and we stopped letting them dictate us.”
Donovan Mitchell led Cleveland with 22, while Jarrett Allen added 21.
The Cavaliers had blown a 29-point lead in losing their opener at Philadelphia, and the Nets nearly pulled off a similar rally.
Brooklyn trailed 104-82 after a Jaylon Tyson 3-pointer with 9:29 to play before storming back to pull within two.
Mikel Brown Jr. and Dëmin’s four-minute stint was their first together, with Brown hitting a pair of 3-pointers to start the rally.
Dëmin followed with three straight of his own.
The last, off a Randle feed, made it 108-97 with 7:01 to play.
“I see a lot of threats out there when you have Mikel and Julius and Mikel and Egor,” Fernández said. “The other team, they should be concerned with all these guys being able to score the ball. So it’s good. Now we have to grow together.”
Porter’s 3-pointer pulled the Nets within 123-121 with 8.1 seconds left.
But they couldn’t get over the hump.
“We need to have each other’s back more. In that fourth quarter, we were scrambling more. But a big thing is finishing possessions,” Porter said. “Keep this thing solid. We gambled some. We helped some where we didn’t need to help. We had a lot of lackadaisical moments. I had a couple moments. The guy back-doored me. … We just all got to be more solid on that end for sure, and then we’ll be all right.”
