It wasn’t enough that the Brooklyn Nets were facing the Golden State Warriors, the Western Conference’s #1 seed, in game two of a back-to-back on Monday night. No, they needed an even bigger challenge after the night after securing a fantastic, gutty win for Head Coach Jordi Fernández in his return Sacramento.
Half of Brooklyn’s rotation was unavailable against the Dubs, meaning they’d have ten available players. That includes two-ways Tyrese Martin and Dariq Whitehead, the latter of whom boarded a flight from Toronto to the Bay Area early Monday morning just to be available. (For a full accounting, skip to the injury report below.)
Furthermore Brooklyn’s five (literally) biggest players were unavailable, leaving them without a player even resembling a center. But they were actually lucky to field ten players: Game-time decisions on both Dennis Schröder and Trendon Watford went their ways.
Still, Fernández and the Nets were up for the challenge; prior to tip, the head coach said “those are games that you never forget.”
“I just want our guys on the court to be extremely confident, to play really, really hard, to do the things that we do, to pressure the ball, to shoot it when you’re open, to play with a pass, touch the paint. So all those things, whether we’re 8, 9, 10, or 11, we play the same way.”
Lo and behold, Brooklyn played that same way they have all season. Just as they did in Sacramento, they drove, kicked, and shot, making eight threes in the first quarter, their most in any period this season. Unsurprisingly, Golden State doubled Cam Thomas on nearly every ball-screen he used, and the Nets thrived…
Then, it got even worse for Brooklyn, as Cam Johnson stepped on Draymond Green’s foot and rolled his ankle. Curiously, the coaching and medical staffs let Johnson tough it out for the final seven minutes of the second quarter, even as Johnson limped up and down the court without attempting a single shot in that stretch of play.
While that became a long-term worry for Brooklyn, a short-term worry also materialized in that second quarter: They couldn’t stop the Warriors.
Golden State not only scored 30 paint-points in the first half, but they also shot 12-of-27 from deep. Add in a single free-throw, and you’ve accounted for their whole point total. Steph Curry made his first three triples, yes, but it hurt more to watch Golden State’s role players go off, from Lindy Waters III to Moses Moody. Those two were the team’s leading scorers at the break.
Things went from bad to worse early in the third quarter, despite Cam Thomas’ best scoring efforts…
Thomas would finish with 23/3/1 on 6-of-11 shooting with a host of free-throws, and frankly, the low-assist total was a product of some bad luck, along with Golden State’s double-heavy defense.
Hey, every blowout needs a silver lining, right? Because when Brooklyn called a timeout down 86-68 with over seven minutes to go in the third, that’s all Thomas’ performance was gonna be. Nobody could fault the Nets for the circumstances they were facing, and one competitive half of basketball given those circumstances amounts to a solid showing.
Prior to the game, Steve Kerr said Fernández is, “a really good coach, you can see it from the way they play,” and nothing about that had changed through two-and-a-half quarters.
Then, Fernández showed why he might be a truly special coach. The Brooklyn Nets, subbing out Cam Thomas and already down Cam Johnson, did the unthinkable. They came back to defeat the West’s #1 team; an 18-point deficit on its face, particularly in an NBA saturated with the 3-point shot, is nothing impossible to overcome, but these Nets, in this spot? Does one single adjective describe this type of win?
It started defensively. From the 7:34 mark of the third to the 1:54 mark of the fourth, nearly 18 minutes of game-time, Brooklyn allowed just 24 points. The Warriors were running a perfect offense, shooting everything at the rim or from three, making a whole lot of those attempts. Then. in the blink of an eye then, the Nets made them look incompetent for a quarter-and-a-half.
Not just any Nets, though, the likes of Shake Milton, Keon Johnson, Jalen Wilson, and Ziaire Williams were getting the job done…
“I think this one was his best performance of the year,” said Fernández of Williams.
The offense had never really disappeared for Brooklyn, but a few untimely turnovers and missed shots allowed Golden State to create that 86-68 cushion. Those proved to be a mirage; drive, kick, shoot, all the way to 20-of-45 from deep, all nine Nets making at least one 3-pointer (Whitehead did not play).
Better yet, Brooklyn capitalized on every single opportunity Golden State gave ‘em, forcing 13 turnovers that led to a whopping 26 points, as the Nets showed us what their ideal pace truly is, perhaps for the first time all season.
On the other hand, the Warriors turned Brooklyn over a dozen times, but scored a measly-by-comparison 12 points off those opportunities.
All these stats are team stats for a reason. We could list off the individual efforts and still fill this article, with Jalen Wilson playing 41 minutes on the second night of a back-to-back, or Trendon Watford making every clutch shot he took in the fourth, or Shake Milton’s season-high 13 points, or even Tyrese Martin, who had himself a nice little showing in the first half.
And yet, because Cam Thomas didn’t play after getting subbed out midway through the third (Fernández chalked it up to the flow of the game and the load Thomas has been carrying lately), much of the offensive burden fell on Dennis Schröder’s shoulders.
He responded with 17 points and four assists…in the fourth freaking quarter…
On a night when everybody shined, Dennis was the brightest star.
When possessions stalled out, he went and got buckets. When they didn’t, he played within the flow of the offense, taking catch-and-shoot threes or driving the lane. He even picked up Steph Curry full-court, every chance he could.
Said Fernández: “He took control of the game, took control of the lead, and put everybody in the right place on both ends of the floor, and that’s that kind of leadership like having a coach on the floor. And when those things happen, I just let him do his thing, and if he has a question for me, I’ll try to give him an answer.”
On a night like Monday, it feels as though the Nets are the NBA’s greatest — or at least most compelling — 8-10 team of all-time. We already knew their “tough” and “competitive” identity wasn’t a cliché, but then what is this? How many Nets teams have you rooted for that were capable of this victory? Think about it.
Then, think about if you’ll remember this victory in May, while you’re sweating over those damned ping-pong balls. Will you regret the fight Jordi Fernández’s team showed on a random Monday night in San Francisco, half-a-year earlier? Will you curse the effort Wilson gave, the shots Schröder made, the bruises Williams gave himself on the Chase Center floor?
Do not let the answer be ‘yes,’ I’m imploring you. On November 25, 2024, even with an 8-10 record and no hope of title contention, the Brooklyn Nets are an awesome team. Ain’t that something?
“We all just went to the bench and said, ‘we just gotta chip away, chip away, fight, and just have grit.’ It’s so fun to go out and compete and to do it all together.” — Jalen Wilson.
Final Score: Brooklyn Nets 128, Golden State Warriors 120
Injury Report
Alright, ready?
Let’s start with the most worrisome absence: Nic Claxton. Brooklyn’s $100 million man did not appear on the initial injury report, but was listed as doubtful, then unavailable late on Monday afternoon. Worse yet, it was “back soreness” that kept him out; Sunday night marked Claxton’s return from a three-game absence following an epidural injection to his lower back.
When asked about his starting center’s condition in pregame, Fernández gave an interesting response: “I think in professional sports, especially in this league, a lot of these guys play with bumps and bruises. What we need them is to believe that they’re good to go. And if we feel like a guy is not confident, we’re gonna let them make the decision, I think that’s fair. If you play and you are afraid to get hurt, guess what? You’re going to get hurt. So we don’t want that for Nic or anybody in our group … So that’s where we are right now with Nic, he felt it again, his awareness of his back.”
Sure seems like something that isn’t going to fade quickly. Elsewhere:
- We watched Noah Clowney sprain his left ankle in Sacramento on Sunday night; On Monday, Jordi Fernández said that the skinny sophomore had an MRI for said ankle, but no results had come back yet.
- It was no surprise that Dorian Finney-Smith missed Monday’s game with his own left ankle sprain, but rather a planned absence. DFS has been nursing that injury throughout November, and Fernández said he is “TBD” for Brooklyn’s next game.
- Ben Simmons’ absence was also planned, as his current inability to play back-to-backs is plain old injury management.
- Day’Ron Sharpe and Bojan Bogdanović are without updates, for now. We should hear something in December.
- Cam Johnson has been diagnosed with a right ankle sprain; no updates were immediately available after the game.
- Two-way Jaylen Martin’s condition remains uncertain. He fell to the floor in a Long Island Nets game Sunday vs. the Raptors 905 writhing in pain while holding his right knee. He was stretchered off the floor at the suburban Toronto arena. No word yet on his situation.
From Toronto to San Francisco
The Nets recalled Dariq Whitehead and Jacky Cui Monday from the Long Island Nets to bolster their injury-riddled roster. Neither Whitehead, on assignment as he continues to recover from his latest surgery, nor Cui, on a two-way deal, played after their international flight from Toronto where they played over the weekend vs. the Raptors 905.
Whitehead had his best two games in the G League and really since his high school player of the year time at Montverde Academy. In his two games vs the Raptors affiliate, the 20-year-old, still one of the NBA’s youngest players, recorded his most minutes (36), most points (26), most rebounds (7), most assists (7) and 3-pointers (6) since he underwent his first surgery on his foot back in August 2022.
Milestone Watch
The hits just keep on coming.
- The Eastern Conference, as a whole, is 27-45 against the West this season. The Nets are 5-1. Even better, the Nets are 4-0 on the road against Western Conference teams for the first time in franchise history.
- Jalen Wilson didn’t just record a season-high in minutes, but his 18 points also marked a season-high.
- Ziaire Williams recorded 19 points and ten boards, the first double-double of his Nets tenure and just the second in his career. His four assists also tied a season-high.
Next Up
Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images
The Brooklyn Nets will be seeing an old friend to cap off their four-game road trip, facing Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday night. (Worth noting: Durant is set to make his return from a two-week injury absence on Tuesday night, so he may not be available for Phoenix-Brooklyn on the back-to-back.) Tip-off is scheduled for 9:00 p.m. ET.
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