{"id":47631,"date":"2025-11-15T10:37:58","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T10:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/47631\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T10:37:58","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T10:37:58","slug":"brooklyn-nets-lose-to-orlando-magic-in-final-minutes-105-98-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/47631\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn Nets lose to Orlando Magic in final minutes, 105-98"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Porter Jr. entered Friday night\u2019s NBA Cup contest against the Orlando Magic with a career-high of six assists, done just once. In less than one quarter of play, he tied that mark. Despite a putrid record through his first season-and-change, rest assured Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez is going to have a long leash as the head coach of the Brooklyn Nets.<\/p>\n

His team led 36-27 after one quarter, and while scoring seven fast-break points off seven Orlando turnovers helped the cause, they really just spammed Porter Jr.\/Nic Claxton actions in the half court with great success. Porter Jr., tracing the arc clockwise, would come off a screen and then a handoff from Claxton, or he\u2019d receive a simple pass. From there, it was over for Orlando\u2019s bigs, in a mediocre drop coverage that neither contested his jumpers nor the lob over the top\u2026<\/p>\n

Porter Jr. posted 11 points and six assists in the first quarter. He was a beneficiary of Brooklyn\u2019s flowing offense, not just the focal point. Brooklyn rode their early momentum to a 16-point lead midway through the second quarter, thought it was at this point their offense flatlined. Orlando, even without Paolo Banchero due to injury, made it a close game before the half.<\/p>\n

Egor D\u00ebmin drove off a pick-and-roll for a layup early, sending a minor shockwave throughout Nets fandom, but was otherwise quiet over just 18 minutes, posting 8\/3\/2 on 2-of-9 shooting. He was subbed out a couple possessions into the third quarter and had a lengthy spell on the bench, though he did ultimately return for some big fourth quarter minutes, where he made his sole 3-pointer.<\/p>\n

Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez predictably downplayed his sub pattern: \u201cNo, I just played with Tyrese. And at some point, what you\u2019re trying to find is a group that gives you a run. And that group \u2026 they made a run, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

The other rookie in the rotation, Drake Powell, was a bit more ready for the physical and chaotic tone of this NBA Cup affair. He posted 6\/3\/3 on all two-pointers in his 22 minutes, but his most impressive plays had little to do with the stat-sheet. Often tasked with defending Desmond Bane, he fervently shuffled those puppies\u2026<\/p>\n

Really, this is why Brooklyn hung around until the bitter end. They won the turnover battle 19-7, taking advantage of an uninspiring Orlando Magic half-court offense that invokes the feeling Head Coach Jamahl Mosley won\u2019t survive their upcoming first- or second-round exit.<\/p>\n

But that offense was enough to get the job done. Ziaire Williams and Terance Mann each played with terrific energy and made a couple of 3-pointers (though a visibly fired up Mann was a team-worst -20 on the night), but no other Net could make a jumper after the first quarter. Despite Porter Jr.\u2019s 24\/11\/7 stat-line, he shot just 10-of-23 from the floor. As a whole, Brooklyn finished 10-of-39 from deep, undoing a pretty strong 56% shooting on twos.<\/p>\n

Up 98-94 with under two minutes left, Nic Claxton (13\/4\/3) failed to box out Wendell Carter Jr. on the free-throw line, the ball careening out of bounds off a white jersey. Tristan da Silva hit his fifth 3-pointer of the game on the ensuing possession. After an empty trip the other way, Franz Wagner came down and caught the ball against a Ziaire Williams close out. He hoisted up a triple that looked embarrassingly off to everybody in the arena, but those of us watching on television saw it immediately: He banked it in. Next time down, he backed into a three against a Nic Claxton switch, and perhaps emboldened by the friendly touch of the basketball gods, this one went in normally. Ballgame\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cWe miss a free throw box out they win that position, and then they made a couple of crazy threes,\u201d said Fern\u00e1ndez. Sometimes you know, it goes your way. And it\u2019s part of the game, but control what we can control, you know, that defensive rebounding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brooklyn lost the fourth quarter 26-16. At least in this one, they resembled their surly selves from early last season, ready to commit hard fouls and dive on the floor. We even got an old classic from Fern\u00e1ndez in postgame\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got 1% better as a group, and that\u2019s the most important thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Final Score: Orlando Magic 105, Brooklyn Nets 98<\/p>\n

Noah Clowney (12 points) fouled out for the first time in his career, though not really a milestone.Porter\u2019s 24\/11\/7 and a steal is a stat-line that hasn\u2019t been matched by any Net since Kevin Durant in 2022.That also marks the 60th double-double of MPJ\u2019s career, third of this season.\"Alex<\/a><\/p>\n

Alex Slitz\/Getty Images Getty Images<\/p>\n

All due respect to the Cup, but this is why we play. In a matchup of 1-11 teams, the Brooklyn Nets will take on the Washington Wizards in our nation\u2019s capital. No sportsbook has released a line for this matchup yet, but this could be one of the only games in which Brooklyn is the betting favorite all season long. Tip-off is scheduled for Sunday evening at 6:00 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Porter Jr. entered Friday night\u2019s NBA Cup contest against the Orlando Magic with a career-high of six…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[30914,139,141,140],"class_list":["post-47631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-nets-scores","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}