The Brooklyn Nets don’t get much breathing room after Saturday night’s collapse in Atlanta. Less than a day later, they’re back on the road and staring at another tricky assignment, this time against a Dallas Mavericks team that has been rolling lately.
Brooklyn is 2-7 and coming off a 124-121 loss to the Hawks after squandering a 17-point lead. The Nets controlled plenty of that game, but Atlanta seized control in the fourth quarter and left Brooklyn with another frustrating finish.
Michael Porter Jr. paced the Nets with 25 points and nine rebounds, Julius Randle added 19 points, seven rebounds and eight assists, and Nolan Traoré kept turning heads with 19 points and four steals. Mikel Brown Jr. chipped in 18 points as well.
Day’Ron Sharpe delivered the first triple-double of his career, finishing with 12 points, 10 rebounds and a career-high 13 assists. Danny Wolf added 11 points and nine rebounds, and his late three-pointer gave Brooklyn one last opening to rally.
Still, the numbers that hurt the Nets most were the ones that fed Atlanta’s comeback. Brooklyn turned it over 22 times, which led directly to 26 Hawks points, and the Hawks also dominated the paint 70-48. Those are the kinds of issues that can snowball fast, especially against a Dallas group with multiple players who can punish mistakes.
The Mavericks are 5-4 after a 112-100 win over the Utah Jazz on Friday night. That victory pushed Dallas to 2-0 in Emirates NBA Cup play and put it atop West Group A.
P.J. Washington led the way with 26 points and six rebounds, hitting six of his 10 shots from deep.
Cooper Flagg turned in a strong all-around line with 21 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and three steals. Kyrie Irving scored 14 points, and rookie Morez Johnson posted 13 points and 17 rebounds in one of his best outings of the season.
Dallas also got Santi Aldama back for his Mavericks debut after a knee issue. He logged 13 minutes and finished with eight points and nine rebounds, giving the team another body in the frontcourt.
The schedule doesn’t do either team many favors here. Brooklyn is on the second night of a back-to-back after the loss in Atlanta, and Dallas is starting one of its own before facing the Indiana Pacers on Monday night.
The Nets will also be without Brown, who is being held out while the team continues to manage his workload. That’s a notable absence after the guard’s strong showing against Atlanta, when he hit multiple three-pointers in the fourth quarter to help keep Brooklyn in front. With him sidelined, the Nets will need other guards to pick up that scoring.
Against Dallas, the challenge is obvious. Flagg can affect the game in a lot of different ways, Irving gives the Mavericks another proven scorer who can create for himself and others, and Washington’s shooting from the perimeter adds another layer of danger. If Brooklyn is loose with the ball again, Dallas has the firepower to make it pay.
For the Nets, the path is straightforward even if the task is not: protect the basketball, get better stops, and find enough offense from Porter and Randle to stay in the fight. Traoré, Sharpe and Wolf have all given Brooklyn something to build on, but this trip won’t get any easier unless the Nets put together a more complete effort.
Tipoff is set for Sunday at 7:30 p.m. ET at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.
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Nets Rotation Faces Heat After A Loss Brooklyn Should Have Closed
For three quarters, Brooklyn looked like it had done enough to put another win in the bank, building a lead and leaning on a balanced effort from Michael Porter Jr. and Julius Randle. Porter finished with 25 points and nine rebounds, while Randle added 19 points, seven rebounds and eight assists in a game that, for long stretches, seemed to be trending the Nets way.
Then the closing stretch turned into the kind of loss that tends to linger in a locker room and in the film room. The 124-121 defeat to Atlanta left Brooklyn sorting through player grades and individual performances, but the bigger concern is harder to grade: how a game that was there to be closed slipped away when it mattered most. [Read more 🡒]
Julius Randle May Have Just Changed Brooklyns Late-Game Rotation
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Julius Randle still did his part with 22 points, but he also showed the kind of selflessness coaches love when a game starts tilting in the right direction. The bigger question now is whether Fernndez treats that stretch as a one-off adjustment or the start of a new closing formula, especially with Wolf and Mann making a strong case to stay in the mix when games tighten up. [Read more 🡒]