{"id":784165,"date":"2026-07-07T05:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T05:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/784165\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T05:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T05:50:12","slug":"mikel-brown-jr-flashes-nets-fly-past-warriors-in-cali-classic-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/784165\/","title":{"rendered":"Mikel Brown Jr. flashes, Nets fly past Warriors in Cali Classic Finale"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Brooklyn Nets played their third contest in July this evening, though in many ways, it felt like the true start of Summer. Mikel Brown Jr., Brooklyn\u2019s sixth overall pick and highest drafted player since 2010, logged his first minutes in a Nets uniform tonight after sitting out the first two.<\/p>\n

What Brown Jr.\u2019s Summer League debut lacked in punctuality was quickly made up for in thrill. Two days after the East River fireworks had faded, he kept the \u201coohs\u201d and \u201cahs\u201d echoing throughout Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

The Nets came out against Golden State with Egor D\u00ebmin handling the rock and Brown Jr. working off-ball. He assisted on Brooklyn\u2019s first basket of the game nonetheless\u2026<\/p>\n

The first quarter highlights for the Louisville product didn\u2019t stop there. A few moments later, Brown Jr. hit a buttery triple after D\u00ebmin came up with a steal in the Golden State backcourt. Soon after, he found Chaney Johnson for his third dime of the opening period. He hand\u2019t seen one since February, but the Orlando kid looked more comfortable on the court than anyone early on.<\/p>\n

Be that as it may, Brown Jr. wasn\u2019t the only man out there for Brooklyn tonight. Johnson led all scorers in the first seven points while also coming up with two steals, two rebounds and a block. Bilodeau followed with six after splashing 2-4 threes. The Nets, however, trailed 28-24 entering the second, as the Warriors began the game shooting 6-13 from deep, leveraging the ball around Brooklyn\u2019s aggressive ball pressure.<\/p>\n

However, in the Summer League, margins are thin. Strengths can crumble into weaknesses in an instant. Ben Saraf, who started the game 0-2 with two giveaways, led a defensive charge to do that for Brooklyn. He and the larger Net guards continued to get in Golden State\u2019s grill, but sped up their rotations to kickstart a 12-0 run. Brown Jr., still posting a near even touch-to-highlight ratio, finished it with more help from Bilodeau\u2026<\/p>\n

That run boiled into a 20-2 jolt for the Nets, putting them in position to carry a 56-46 lead into halftime. There, Johnson led with 15 points on 7-9 shooting. Bilodeau followed with 12 while shooting 4-6 from three. D\u00ebmin reached double figures as well with 10 points along with three assists. The team also shot a collective 9-18 from three.<\/p>\n

The subsequent period offered little-to-no movement, as the Net lead continued to bob up and down around the 10-point mark. Both teams flashed their youth with a variety of offensive fouls that collectively slowed things down.<\/p>\n

However, the final frame saw the Nets sprint to the finish.<\/p>\n

Brooklyn held Golden State scoreless in the fourth period until the 7:38 mark. St. John\u2019s product Aaron Scott pitched in a quick five points as the Nets were eager to convert their stops into fast break buckets at the other end. Johnson continued to leverage his physicality, rummaging his way to four more second half points as the Nets closed things out. He finished with 19\/7\/2.<\/p>\n

Saraf found his playmaking groove down the stretch as well, methodically feeding Johnson and others for high-percentage looks after squeaking past the Warrior defense. By the end of it, he had completely turned things around at the offensive end, finishing with 15 points and seven assists while shooting 6-12 from the field and 3-6 from deep. He was a team-high +28.<\/p>\n

Bilodeau\u2019s sixth three of the game (yes, six) gave the Nets their largest lead of the ball game with 1:49 to go, cementing his team\u2019s second Summer victory. Bilodeau tallied 18 for the game after going 6-9 from deep. A strong second half from D\u00ebmin saw him lead his team with 23 points while shooting 7-12 from the field and 2-7 from deep. He snuck the very last two in, just beating the clock, and enduring foe gravity.<\/p>\n

D\u00ebmin also notched eight rebounds, five assists, two steals, and three turnovers. Brown didn\u2019t play beyond the 2:22 mark of the third. Dutch Gaitley confirmed to reporters post game that the 20-year-old was on a 20-minute pitch count, which would increase in upcoming games.<\/p>\n

Gaitley said he challenged Brown Jr. to put the game out of question by the time he had to sit for good\u2026<\/p>\n

Challenge accepted, and challenge met. The Nets trotted calmly to a 100-79 victory. Brown Jr. finished with 10 points, four assists, a rebound, and two turnovers while shooting 4-11 from the field and 2-5 from deep.<\/p>\n

Overall, Gaitley credited the team for winning two games with two different rotations. In Sunday\u2019s win vs. the Kings, virtually no one who played Monday was available\u2026<\/p>\n

While it was no a statistical marvel, Brown Jr.\u2019s displayed feel around the floor, vision, and shooting confidence tell an encouraging story. Plus he did it with a seeming nonchalance as if to say: don\u2019t be surprised; this is what I do. It\u2019s only getting started as well.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

This now concludes the California Classic for the Nets. The boys of summer, however, will play on. The Nets will next play the New York Knicks on July 10th in Las Vegas. The game will be streamable on ESPN. It tips off at 6:00 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brooklyn Nets played their third contest in July this evening, though in many ways, it felt like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":784166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,157715,85],"class_list":["post-784165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-nets-scores","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}