The Brooklyn Nets moved around a bit easier on Friday night. For the first time all year, they walked into the Barclays Center fresh off a victory and free from the mental shackles that come from having a goose egg in your win column. While we can’t expect them to be there often this year, it set the scene for a jubilant start to the weekend.

In a rebuilding season, you have to at least be happy with that.

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The evening also brought Nets fans their first dosage of NBA Cup action this season. In the tournament’s two-year run, Brooklyn has yet to advance past the group round, but their efforts to change that this evening were clear from the jump.

Brooklyn began the game 6-of-8 from deep, largely thanks to Noah Clowney, who has continued to tell the law of averages to ante up after his slow start to the season from three. The stretch big hit four triples in less than four minutes to start the game, propelling the Nets into an early 19-9 lead.

Egor Dëmin, who made his first start of the season with Cam Thomas in street clothes, even got in on the action with five first period points. The perfect shooting from floor? Nice to see. The location of the shots? Really nice to see. The eighth overall pick splashed a three and finished inside in the opening frame.

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I don’t want to make a mountain out of molehill here, but in fairness, concerns about his perimeter shooting percentage in college and shot volume in the paint to open the season were each both blown into Himalaya-sized proportions over the past six months. Just for kicks, Dëmin also threw four assists in the first.

Dëmin wasn’t the only rook to receive some early burn. Drake Powell, back again from an ankle injury, got some first period minutes with Day’Ron Sharpe, Ziaire Williams, Tyrese Martin, and Michael Porter Jr., even operating at the point for a few. The lineup may have been -6 in the first, but Powell looked confident pushing the ball down the floor, and most importantly, healthy.

Outside of Cade Cunningham’s made triple to start the scoring tonight, the heavily favored Pistons didn’t take their first lead until the 10:53 mark of the second. A flurry of fouls slowed the game down around that point, keeping it a one basket game for almost the entire quarter’s top half.

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Energy spiked again though around the five minute mark when Clowney and Dëmin returned with some encore sequences to their first period performances. Almost immediately after checking in, Egor hit a motion triple before taking Ausur Thompson’s lunch a few sequences later. Clowney’s already made notable strides putting the ball on the floor and attacking defenders this season, though none were more impressive than this take on the 6’6”, 220-pound Cunningham…

“I love him,” Dëmind said of Clowney postgame. “I think it’s really important for me, personally, and for the team, to make sure that he has this confidence to keep shooting, and everybody knows that he can shoot the ball extremely well, as he did today, as I said, in first two minutes of the game, and not just those stretches, but he can be consistent during the whole 46 minutes, right? So I think that’s amazing, that he keeps shooting.”

What seemed like mere a hot shooting night for Clowney felt like it was about to turn into a career-game after he started putting the vision on display in the second as well…

That MPJ long ball momentarily gave the Nets back the lead, although Caris LeVert, playing in his eighth game as a Barclays Center visitor tonight, buried his own triple to give Detroit a lead just before halftime. Jalen Duren, who beat Clowney by one point to lead all scorers at the break, padded it to give himself 18 and the Pistons a 60-55 lead.

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The second half’s fist two minutes featured five turnovers between the two teams, making it a sloppy restart by all accounts. But the Nets more often than not ended up the wrong side of those exchanges, as Detroit slid into a 12-2 start in the third, giving them their largest lead of the contest at the time.

As they did in the first, the Pistons continued to punish Brooklyn inside, blowing their paint advantage up to from 20 to 48 points by the end of the period. Porter Jr. did his best to keep Brooklyn within reach, scoring all eight of Brooklyn’s opening points in the second half. He also drove and dished to Nic Claxton on one play, getting him to the line and Brooklyn to it’s ninth and 10th points. He even made a few plays at the other end, covering down low as the Nets continued to blitz screens.

However, Brooklyn couldn’t get anything going outside of that. While Detroit shot 57% from the field in the frame, the Nets posted .211/.200 splits and were unable to find a proper grip on the ball. After Cunningham poked one away from Sharpe in the high post and flushed it at the other end, the scoreboard showed the Pistons up by an 84-68 score with 3:23 to play in the third. The deficit swelled to 20 by the end the quarter.

“They ended up finding their rhythm, we knew what they do with their ball pressure and their physicality, and we didn’t handle it very well, especially in quarters two and three,” Jordi Fernández said. “I think we started with the mindset of running and letting it fly. We saw at the beginning, great energy, and you know that this team, especially good teams, playoff teams, that they’re going to punch and punch hard, and you got to be reay to take it and then respond. At one point we dropped our shoulders, and I told the guys, I’m proud of their effort, we just gotta be better.”

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The Nets have already established a reputation for staging ferocious comebacks, which J.B. Bickerstaff even alluded to pregame, but after the Nets missed their first four field goal attempts begin the fourth, it became clear we wouldn’t experience that today. Dëmin and Clowney had cooled off, leaving the Brooklyn offense on life support and depending on MPJ heaves like a pacemaker. Meanwhile, Detroit continued its onslaught on the interior with Duran reaching 30 points just after the eight minute mark of the fourth.

Porter Jr. finished the game with 28 points , two assits, and five rebounds after shooting 8-17 from the field and 5-10 from deep. Clowney, adding only two in the second half, got to 19 points shooting 5-13 from the field and 4-8 from deep. Claxton quietly enjoyed another solid outing, chipping in 17 points, eight boards, two dimes, and a rejection. Dëmin reached eight points, seven assists, and three boards shooting 3-8 from the field and 2-5 from deep.

E.J. Liddell and Tyson Etienne checked in around the four minute mark as the Nets officially waived their white flag. The teams collectively kicked the can that was Detroit’s 20-point lead down the road during the game’s final possessions, getting the Pistons a wealthy point differential advantage for potential Cup standings tiebreakers, and the Nets back in first place for early tankathon sims.

Final: Detroit Pistons 125, Brooklyn Nets 107

Injury Report

Cam Thomas met with the media to speak on his hamstring injury pregame. The Nets announced before tipoff that he’d be re-evaluated in 3-4 four weeks. Read his commentary and more here.

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Clowney exited momentarily in the second half but returned later. Postgame, he said that he rolled his ankle, but didn’t seem too concerned.

“Maybe I’ll feel it in the morning, maybe not,” he said. “But it wasn’t like I landed on somebody’s foot or something like that, so I think I’ll be fine.”

Milestone Watch

Noah Clowney’s 13 points in the first period tonight were his second-most points in any quarter of his career (14 in the 2Q on 4/3/24 vs. IND). Then, his 17 points in the first half were his most points scored in any half in his career (previous high: 15 points twice, both vs. Detroit at Barclays Center – first half on 1/8/25 and second half on 4/6/24).

With his second offensive rebound tonight, Nic Claxton passed George Johnson for sole possession of 10th in franchise history in offensive rebounds (713).

Next Up

The Nets will head across the river next to play the New York Knicks on Sunday afternoon. This “rivalry” hasn’t always felt like one, with neither team contending at the same time since the Nets made the move to Brooklyn. That won’t change this Sunday, but the two teams will do battle regardless. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. EST.

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