BOSTON — Jordi Fernández says the rebuilding Nets can’t let all these losses turn them into losers, that tasting victory has them wanting more.
On Friday, the Nets got a huge one, an impressive 113-105 win over the Celtics before a raucous green-clad sellout crowd of 19,156 at TD Garden.
Michael Porter Jr. poured in 16 of his game-high 33 points in the fourth quarter. Center Nic Claxton added his first triple-double (18 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds) and rookie Egor Dëmin chipped in 12 points, six boards and five assists.
Nic Claxton and Michael Porter Jr. of the Brooklyn Nets high five during the game against the Boston Celtics during the 2025-26 Emirates Cup on November 21, 2025 at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. NBAE via Getty Images
The Nets (3-12) staved off elimination in the NBA Cup and beat a good team for the first time this season. Their other victories had come at Indiana and Washington, their primary rivals in the tank race for lottery positioning.
So how does a tanking team committed to developing a record five first-round rookies go through the inevitable defeats and growing pains and develop winning habits?
“It’s something that you have to live day to day,” Fernández said. “It’s not something you just say one day and that’s it. Going back to the beginning of our season, we played some games where it felt like our competitiveness was not there. And I can talk about ball pressure, full-court pick-ups, deflections, paint touches — everything we track based on what our staples and basics are — and it was not there. And in the last four games … all those numbers are way better. Our guys feel like we’re getting better as a group, but each player is getting better as well.
“There’s a difference between losing and being a loser. Losing is not getting the outcome that you want. Being a loser is when you lose and you don’t care, or when you’re not willing to do whatever it takes to be successful.
“Sometimes you’ll do whatever it takes and … you lose. But if you keep doing it over and over, you’re going to get better. Our group now has embraced that. The challenge is to do it again and again and again, which is really hard. When the outcome is not what you want, it can be a little deflating. But our wins have given us energy to go back to work, watch film and do all those things.”
And on Friday, that started to pay dividends.
An 11-2 run in the second quarter gave the Nets a lead they never lost, even though they had plenty of chances to against Boston (8-8).
With the score knotted at 51-all on Derek White’s 3-pointer with 3:23 left in the first half, Brooklyn closed on that 11-2 run.
The Nets had four baskets in the spurt, with Dëmin scoring two — a 6-foot turnaround bank shot and driving layup — and assisting on the other pair, a Porter 3-pointer and a running Noah Clowney layup with just 2.8 seconds left.
The latter gave Brooklyn a 62-53 lead at the break, and they never lost it thanks to withering defense in stark contrast to their sieve-like tendencies earlier in the season. They held Boston to 42.6 percent shooting in the first half.
Egor Demin of the Brooklyn Nets dribbles the ball during the game against the Boston Celtics during the 2025-26 Emirates Cup on November 21, 2025 at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. NBAE via Getty Images
Clowney drew Jaylen Brown’s fourth foul a minute into the second half, and with the Nets trying to stave off a Boston run, Terance Mann took an elbow in the face for the Celtic star’s fifth with 5:52 left in the third.
Brooklyn was clinging to a 71-68 edge.
It was still just 74-70 after an Anfernee Simons pull-up with 5:18 left in the third when they tightened the defensive screws and responded with a 16-2 run.
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Claxton started it by finding Tyrese Martin for a cutting layup. They held the Celtics to 1-of-8 shooting with a pair of turnovers, the latter coming on rookie Drake Powell stealing a Sam Hauser pass and immediately finding Ziaire Williams up court for a breakaway dunk.
The jam gave the Nets their biggest lead of the night at 90-72 with 1:18 left in the third. They spent the fourth trying to hold on to it.
Brown led Boston back, and the Nets saw their cushion shaved to just 96-94. But Dëmin showed he wasn’t cowed by the moment, with a huge right-wing 3-pointer to staunch the bleeding.
Clinging to a 99-95 lead that was tenuous at best, Porter hit a couple of huge baskets in a 7-2 run that gave Brooklyn a 106-97 cushion and some breathing room. His dunk and roar pushed it to double digits, and he added a jumper to pad it to a dozen and a layup that made it 112-98 with 1:25 to play.