SAN ANTONIO \u2014 The Nets are tanking this season in hopes of landing a transformational talent in next year\u2019s draft.<\/p>\n
They didn\u2019t have far to look to see just what that can do for a franchise.<\/p>\n
The scoreline will say the Nets lost 118-107 to the Spurs at the Frost Bank Center. But really, they lost to Victor Wembanyama and Dylan Harper.<\/p>\n
Once again, the Nets dug themselves a huge hole \u2014 this time 26 points \u2014 before storming back to take a fourth-quarter lead. But they couldn\u2019t hold it.<\/p>\n
Nets guard Cam Thomas, center, drives against San Antonio Spurs forward Harrison Barnes (40) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025. AP<\/p>\n
Cam Thomas poured in a game-high 40 points but got precious little help. Michael Porter Jr. (16 points) and Nic Claxton (10) were the only other Nets in double figures, with Brooklyn shooting just 39.1 percent from the field.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Wembanyama had 31 points, 14 rebounds and six blocks in wrecking the Nets offense. <\/p>\n
And rookie Harper \u2014 the second pick in this year\u2019s draft \u2014 had 20 points, eight assists and six boards, finishing plus-33 off the bench and dominating Nets lottery pick Egor D\u00ebmin.<\/p>\n
Victor Wembanyama #1 of the San Antonio Spurs dunks against the Brooklyn Nets in the first half of a game at Frost Bank Center on October 26, 2025. Getty Images<\/p>\n
The Nets were buried far deeper than six feet under before showing fight. They trailed 81-55 with 8:47 left in the third after Stephon Castle found Julian Champagnie for a 3-pointer. But that\u2019s when they dug in for an extended run that spanned the periods.<\/p>\n
The Nets went on a 35-7 blitz to surge ahead.<\/p>\n
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They turned up their defense to force San Antonio to miss 10 of the next dozen shots and converted those to run-outs. <\/p>\n
But instead of challenging Wembanyama in the paint, they stuck to the script \u2014 and the perimeter.<\/p>\n
The Nets hit 7-of-11 from deep in that run, with Jalen Wilson\u2019s 3-pointer off a Tyrese Martin feed putting them over the top at 90-88 with 10:08 to play.<\/p>\n
Nets forward Noah Clowney (21) drives in against San Antonio Spurs forward Keldon Johnson (3) in the first half at Frost Bank Center. Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Martin\u2019s free throws with 8:40 left pushed the lead to 97-92, but they couldn\u2019t hold it, allowing 11 unanswered points. The Nets watched as Harper and Wembanyama made huge plays to flip the momentum again.<\/p>\n
The Spurs ran a two-man game, with Harper feeding Wembanyama for a 3-pointer that made it 103-97. The clock read 6:11, but the game was over.<\/p>\n
Ziaire Williams was forced from the game with a back injury after taking a hard fall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2014 The Nets are tanking this season in hopes of landing a transformational talent in next…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,355,99,11480,21,9,24,63,9138,319,10221],"class_list":{"0":"post-17622","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","10":"tag-brooklyn-nets","11":"tag-brooklyn-news","12":"tag-cameron-thomas","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-victor-wembanyama"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}