The Brooklyn Nets still haven’t found the first win they’ve been chasing all season, and Friday night won’t make the road any easier. Detroit arrives at Barclays Center with momentum, confidence and a 4-1 record, ready to test a Nets team that is trying to shake off another crushing near-miss.
Brooklyn hosts the Pistons at 7:30 p.m. ET in its Emirates NBA Cup opener, coming off a 125-124 overtime loss to the Boston Celtics on Tuesday. That one stung in a big way: the Nets erased an eight-point deficit in the fourth quarter, forced overtime on Mikel Brown Jr.’s three-pointer with 0.3 seconds left, and even opened a five-point lead in the extra frame before the game slipped away.
Brown delivered a strong night with 17 points, five rebounds and five assists, with 16 of those points coming in the fourth quarter and overtime. Michael Porter Jr. paced Brooklyn with 27 points and 12 rebounds, and Julius Randle added 24 points, nine rebounds and four assists.
Still, the ending went sideways when Brooklyn had a chance to protect a one-point edge late in overtime. Brown took the shot instead of stalling and forcing Boston to foul, and Jayson Tatum answered with the buzzer-beating jumper.
That latest loss left the Nets at 0-4, the only winless team in the Eastern Conference. The Sacramento Kings are also 0-5, but Brooklyn’s focus is on finally getting over the line after a string of close calls.
Detroit, meanwhile, has looked sharp from the start. The Pistons have won four of five, with their lone loss coming against the defending champion New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. Along the way, they’ve beaten the Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, Philadelphia 76ers and Charlotte Hornets.
Cade Cunningham has been the engine for Detroit early on. He put up 30 points, five rebounds and seven assists in Wednesday’s win over Charlotte, continuing to set the pace for the offense. Daniss Jenkins contributed 14 points off the bench, and Paul Reed handled a bigger workload with Jalen Duren unavailable, finishing with 16 points in 38 minutes.
Duren won’t be on the floor Friday either. The All-Star center is expected to miss at least two weeks with a right hamstring strain, an injury he suffered last Friday against Miami. Detroit may also be missing Isaiah Joe, who is dealing with a hip contusion after a hard fall in Sunday’s win over Philadelphia and is listed as day-to-day.
Brooklyn has its own injury issue to manage. Egor Dëmin has a right leg bone bruise after leaving Tuesday’s loss in Boston and is expected to sit at least a week.
The Nets are also expected to shuffle the starting five again. Nolan Traoré got the start against Boston in place of Keon Ellis and made an immediate impact, scoring nine points in the first quarter and finishing with 15 points and two steals. Ellis is expected to move back into the starting lineup Friday.
For Brooklyn, the formula is clear: clean up the late-game mistakes, take advantage of Detroit being without Duren, and turn the good stretches from Tuesday into something that lasts for 48 minutes. The Pistons have already shown they can beat quality teams, and they’ll bring that edge into a game that doubles as the start of NBA Cup group play for both clubs. Brooklyn is in East Group A and will be looking for a reset as much as a result.
In Other News...
Nets Young Core Ran Into The Same Frustrating Problem Again
Chaney Johnson got the start in place of Egor Dmin on Friday night, a change forced by the bone bruise that has sidelined Dmin and left Brooklyn shuffling its young lineup again. The Nets actually grabbed an early lead against Detroit, but the familiar issues followed soon after, with the offense bogging down and the shots not falling as the game wore on.
Brooklyns problems only deepened in the third quarter, when the Pistons started to separate and the Nets found themselves chasing a game that had gotten away from them. By the time the fourth quarter arrived, the bench group was getting extended run for Mikel Brown Jr., Danny Wolf and Drake Powell, another reminder that this still-developing roster is trying to find answers while searching for its first win of the season. [Read more 🡒]
Nets Backcourt Shakeup Just Put One Rotation Battle In Focus
Jordi Fernandez is already reshuffling the Brooklyn backcourt three games into the season, and the move has quickly turned one of the rosters early questions into a live rotation battle. Nolan Traore got the nod in place of Keon Ellis and responded with a promising first start, finishing with 15 points and three assists before cramps forced him out of the game.
The bigger wrinkle is the health of Egor Demin, who had handled the point guard spot through the first three games before being sidelined. Chaney Johnson is set to start against the Detroit Pistons in his place, leaving Brooklyn to sort out both the short-term lineup and the longer-term fit in a backcourt that already looks unsettled. [Read more 🡒]
Nets Rotation Problem Is Putting Moritz Wagner Under Real Pressure
Moritz Wagner has given the Nets some useful scoring pop off the bench, averaging 10.3 points per game, but the fit has been far less tidy on the other end. Brooklyns defensive numbers have taken a hit with him on the floor, and the issue goes beyond one rough stretch. Wagner is more comfortable stepping out to defend the perimeter than anchoring the paint, which leaves coach Jordi Fernndez trying to balance a skill set the team can use against the interior resistance it still needs.
The problem is made trickier by the roster around him. Brooklyn does not have a deep pool of backup center answers, and the sample size is still small enough that the staff has to decide how much weight to put on early returns. Fernndez also has to factor in Wagners contract, which makes any rotation adjustment more than a simple short-term tweak, and the next stretch could say a lot about how long the Nets keep leaning on him in that role. [Read more 🡒]