The Brooklyn Nets picked up their second win in a row tonight, and while they played winning basketball by all accounts, it felt like the Memphis Grizzlies set it down on the ground for them and walked away.
The Nets held Michael Porter Jr. out tonight for rest. They also started Drake Powell, who spent the last week and a half with Long Island. By putting him alongside Nolan Traoré, Danny Wolf, Noah Clowney, and Nic Claxton, the Nets started three rookies for a third time this season. Progress.
Advertisement
However, the Grizzlies had an even stronger handicap. If you’re a Nets fans infatuated with the Memphis Hustle, this was the night for you to come to the Barclays Center! Memphis’ list of inactives included Ja Morant, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Zach Edey, Brandon Clarke, Taylor Hendricks, Scotty Pippen Jr., Santi Aldama, Ty Jerome, Taj Gibson and Cedric Coward. That left them with only eight players available, three being two-ways. Their rotation also lacked a true center, as they opened with 6’9” GG Jackson at the 5.
Claxton relished his opportunity as the only adult in the room. Most of Brooklyn’s early offensive sets centered around him as he scored six of Brooklyn’s first eight points.
Nevertheless, Memphis controlled the contest early on, starting it 6-of-8 from deep. Rayan Rupert, one of the aforementioned two-ways, led everyone with eight first period points while shooting 2-4 from three. He and Memphis’ rag tag crew even went up on Brooklyn by as many as 10 in that frame.
However, the Nets closed it on an equally sized run to retake the lead, and they held theirs for far longer. Ben Saraf, running around like a penguin on melting ice beforehand, hit Ziaire Williams with a perfect pass to set up a the high-arching three that capped it off…
It was Ochai Agbaji’s turn in the secon. He snagged seven points for the Nets in the period’s first three minutes, leveraging his speed and size on the break. The 6’5” 25-year-old wing also hit a triple in that stretch, bringing himself to 13-of-29 on threes in Brooklyn. He finished tonight with a season high 18 points on 8-of-9 shooting.
“Yeah, he took advantage of his minutes in the last two games, especially against Detroit, a very good team and physical,” Fernández said. “I thought defensively, he was one of our best players, especially protecting the rim and being our low man. He had four actions where he went vertical and protected the rim. And then tonight, the efficiency, 8-of-9 with 18 points, very clean game for him. It’s always good to have guys come in and be that efficient.”
Advertisement
However, if we’re going to talk about shooting from deep, we should really start with Traoré. He hasn’t shied away from the arc this year, but he hasn’t exactly threatened defenses from there either, coming into the game shooting 32.2% on 2.9 attempts per game.
Perhaps the Memphis defense read into those numbers too much. Perhaps Traoré wanted to save his makes for later in the season. Either way, he started the game a perfect 3-of-3 from deep and quickly helped the Nets build their won double digit advantage. He finished with 17 points shooting 6-of-9 from the field and 4-of-5 from three. The Nets also shot 17-of-33 on triples for the evening, giving them their highest mark from there in a game all season.
But even as Brooklyn continued the crisp outside shooting, they never forgot about their advantage on the interior. Brooklyn continued to attack the paint in transition and the halfcourt, posting a +12 advantage there in the first half. Just behind Traoré, who had 11 points by then with an assist and block, Brooklyn’s bigs in Claxton (10) and Sharpe (9) were their team’s second and third leading scorers at halftime.
Fernández took time to appreciate the team’s ability to attack the Memphis defense on both fronts after the game.
Advertisement
“Day’Ron was very efficient. Nic, pretty efficient,” Fernández said. “But, you look at the paint points, 56 is not crazy. I think DayD was very efficient. I think all the shots, like you shoot 55% from the field and 51% for three, that’s pretty good. So, short handed, eight players, probably smaller, but I think overall, it was not just throwing it into the post all the time. Day’Day ducked in a couple times, did a great job, dunked in transition, all that stuff, so yeah, it was good.”
“Great team effort,” Sharpe added. “Everybody’s playing hard, playing together. We always preach about by sharing the ball. They was smaller, so me and Nic was getting on the ball paint and kicking it out. Everybody was capitalizing off of that.”
The Nets likely would have led by more than eight at halftime had they not turned it over 10 times and allowed Memphis to shoot 9-of-20 from deep. But even with the first half spotlighting the Nets’ perimeter defense as the barrier separating them from a win, they either still couldn’t see it, or couldn’t get around it at first.
The Grizzlies began the second half 3-of-6 from deep and quickly cut the lead to one less than four minutes into the third. A Danny Wolf at center experiment midway through the period went awry too, as Memphis even swung back against Brooklyn inside, managing to win there in the period 14-10.
Advertisement
And again, the Grizzlies got close, but not back in front of the Nets. Each time they inched closer, Brooklyn hit a timely shot to stay up one or two possessions. Wolf even redeemed some of his rough defensive sequences at the other end, or at least by heaving the ball into it…
Sharpe then took it from there. Coming in for Wolf to begin the fourth, he added seven points in less than three minutes to lead Brooklyn on a 14-4 run. In the process, Sharpe showed he can put the ball through the rim with feel and force, hitting a three before doing this moments later…
“The three, I already knew it was going in as soon as I shot it,” Sharpe said. “And the dunk, I just gotta dunk it. I didn’t even think he was gonna jump, but he jumped, so I just put it on his head.”
Advertisement
When the dust settled after Sharpe’s seismic boom, the scoreboard showed the Nets up by more than two touchdowns. Powell, Agbaji, and Jalen Wilson, who played his first non-garbage time minutes in over two weeks, all mixing in threes as the fourth bled down also provided the plenty of lead insurance.
It was even enough for Chaney Johnson, one of Brooklyn’s own two-ways, to get his first career minutes as a pro. He played the game’s final five minutes alongside E.J. Liddell, grabbing four points and a steal.
There’s not many to choose from, but this was likely Brooklyn’s biggest “team” win of the season, and not just because the Long Island guys got some burn.
While Sharpe led everyone with 19 points on 8-11 shooting, Ziaire Williams also pitched in 11 points off the bench and finished as a +22. Wilson only scored six points, but finished as a +31 in 22 minutes, which ranks as a career-high figure for him. Wolf had a 14/9/2 line, registering a block and a steal too. Noah Clowney was the sixth Net in double figures with 10 points, but Powell and Claxton were right behind with nine apiece.
Advertisement
With the win, the Nets also surrender the third-best odds to win the draft lottery this May to the Washington Wizards. Sure, there’s plenty of time for them to make that ground back up, but we can’t talk about two Nets wins in a row without acknowledging that.
While lots of fans will surely care about draft pick positioning, Day’Ron Sharpe made it clear postgame he doesn’t…not that his play left anything up for debate.
“We trying to win every game,” he said. “Well, I know, like us as a team, we’re every game, so it felt great for us to get the last win and to get a win today. Nobody likes losing, so just always trying to win, always bring good energy in the locker room.”
Final: Brooklyn Nets 126, Memphis Grizzlies 115
Milestone Watch
Day’Ron Sharpe tied his season high of 19 points tonight against the Grizzlies (fourth time) to go with five rebounds, two assists, two steals and one block. In tandem with Ochai Agbaji (season-high 18 points), it is the first time this season that multiple Nets have scored 18+ off the bench in the same game.
Jalen Wilson +31 plus/minus tonight against Memphis is the second-highest plus/minus by a Net this season (Ben Saraf, +32 on 12/6/25 vs. WAS)
Advertisement
Waiting on the final results around the league, but it looks like the Nets will wind fourth in the Tankathon rankings.
Next Up
The Nets beat the Pistons on Saturday, so that automatically means they’re better than them now and should be favored in this game. This one tips off at Tuesday in the Barclays Center at 7:30 p.m. ET.