The Nets’ best response yet still wasn’t enough. Brooklyn pushed the Boston Celtics to the limit Friday night at Barclays Center, but a pair of overtime breakdowns spoiled a gritty effort in a 130-126 double-overtime loss.
Four straight losses dropped the Nets to 12-31, but this one didn’t feel anything like the last.
“We lost. That’s all I really care about,” Michael Porter Jr. said. “I don’t care about no fight, personally. Obviously, it was a better performance collectively than last game, but we still lost. So it was a game we should have won. We’ve lost too many games this year that come down to the wire like this.”
Down 11-3 just three minutes in, the Nets didn’t fold. Their rookies made sure of that.
Egor Dëmin sparked Brooklyn’s first real punch, drilling back-to-back 3-pointers to stop the bleeding. Drake Powell followed by scoring six straight points himself, burying a 3 over Jaylen Brown before finishing a tough fadeaway in the lane plus the foul. What had the feel of another early blowout turned into a respectable game again, fast.
Dëmin and Powell didn’t score again in their 21 and 20 minutes, respectively, but their early burst mattered.
“They played 20 minutes and 21, which is very good in the NBA, and those are meaningful minutes,” head coach Jordi Fernández said.
Ahead of tip, head coach Jordi Fernández said his team should be judged by how it responds after Wednesday’s historic loss at Madison Square Garden. Friday was a good start. Instead of allowing Boston to create considerable separation early, the Nets fought back, limited the Celtics to 47.6% shooting through the first 12 minutes, and entered the second quarter tied at 28.
That’s how the Nets washed their hands of Wednesday’s stinker in Manhattan, by standing their ground against the East’s No. 2 seed. And Michael Porter Jr. getting going early didn’t hurt, either. After shooting just 4-for-14 against the Knicks two nights ago, the star forward hit two of his first three attempts Friday, including a deep 3-pointer from the logo to find an early rhythm, though four turnovers in his first nine minutes took some shine off the hot start.
Brooklyn’s reserves took care of business during their early second-quarter stint, and no one played with more aggression than Nolan Traore. The rookie guard got downhill twice and knocked down a 3, and once the starters cycled back in to close the half, Porter kept the pressure on with six more points down the stretch, surpassing his scoring total from Wednesday in just 16 minutes.
“He did a lot of good things for us,” Nic Claxton said of Traore. “Getting downhill and getting in the paint, spraying it out, making some good plays… Going forward, we’re definitely going to need that level of play from him.”
The Nets held Boston to 38.3% shooting in the first half, and Claxton set the tone defensively as Brown’s primary defender, helping to limit the Celtics star to 4-for-13 shooting. Brooklyn went into halftime up 55-49, and the margin reflected more than just shotmaking. It reflected effort, focus and a much-needed edge at the defensive end.
However, the Nets had no answer for Payton Pritchard in the third quarter, and his 12 points in the period kept Brooklyn from gaining real separation. Ziaire Williams stepped up off the bench with nine points of his own, and despite six turnovers that led to nine Boston points, the Nets still entered the fourth holding a slim 81-78 lead.
Cam Thomas limped to the bench late in the third quarter after a nasty fall, but he returned for the fourth.
Leading the Nets 103-100 with 29.7 seconds left, Sam Hauser missed what would’ve been a game-icing 3-pointer, giving Brooklyn one last chance and, realistically, a need for a miracle.
The first one came from Claxton, who cleaned up a missed Traore layup with a putback dunk to cut it to one. The second arrived when Anfernee Simons split a pair of free throws with 11 seconds left. And the last, somehow, came from Claxton again, soaring in to hammer home Porter’s missed 3 with 1.9 seconds left, tying the game at 104 and sending it to overtime.
Noah Clowney seemed to put Brooklyn ahead for good with 41.6 seconds left in the extra session. Then Traore, who finished with a career-high 21 points off the bench, and Williams looked ready to ice it at the line, combining to hit five straight free throws until Traore finally missed with 2.5 seconds left.
“You learn that every detail matters, and every mistake is punished, so that’s what cost us the game,” Traore said.
That miss proved costly. Needing a 3 to tie, Boston got exactly what it wanted when Brooklyn broke down on the inbounds, leaving Hugo Gonzalez wide open in the left corner. He buried it to force a second overtime.
Boston edged out the final five minutes 12-8 while limiting the Nets to 0-for-5 shooting from deep, and that was enough to win it.
“I don’t know how [Gonzalez] got so open… I can’t give you an answer for that,” Claxton said.
Porter finished with 30 points, eight rebounds and four assists. Claxton, who injured his right pinky but still finished the game, added 18 points, nine rebounds and four assists. Pritchard scored 32 points and drilled six 3-pointers for Boston, while Brown managed to reach 27 points on a 9-for-27 clip.
The Nets will open a five-game road trip Sunday against the Los Angeles Clippers at Intuit Dome.
