{"id":41965,"date":"2025-11-17T06:19:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T06:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/41965\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T06:19:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T06:19:09","slug":"michael-porter-jr-heeds-call-for-more-playmaking-in-nets-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/41965\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Porter Jr. heeds call for more playmaking in Nets’ win"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 They used to call Michael Porter Jr. \u201cNever Swing the Rock.\u201d<\/p>\n

After handing out a career-high seven assists in back-to-back games, that moniker might have to change. Nets coach Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez challenged Porter \u2014 who has always moved well off the ball \u2014 to get back to cutting and not falling in love with dribbling too much, to sacrifice himself for the team.<\/p>\n

The result has not only been improved playmaking, but a winning performance from the veteran forward. Porter had a game-high 34 points to lead Sunday\u2019s 129-106 rout of Washington<\/a>. He was 11-of-18 shooting, grabbed nine rebounds and dished out seven assists.<\/p>\n

\"Brooklyn Nets forward Michael Porter Jr. (17) looks to pass the ball infant to Washington Wizards guard Bilal Coulibaly (0) during the third quarter at Capital One Arena. Rafael Suanes-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has a plan for him to get better and to show things that he hasn\u2019t done before,\u201d said Fern\u00e1ndez. \u201cAnd right now for him to buy into finishing his cuts, not dancing, not overdribbling, putting pressure on the rim, everybody benefits from it. \u201cAnd guess what? Usually when he does it, he\u2019s the one benefiting from it. So we want him and need him to play like this, because that\u2019s just contagious and good for the group. So, very proud of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Porter shouldered the blame for Friday\u2019s loss after 1-of-6 shooting down the stretch. Sunday, he cut well and didn\u2019t drive into trouble.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was in Denver, everyone assumed that I was just getting some of those cuts because of Nikola [Jokic] and his vision. But I\u2019ve always been a cutter, a guy that likes to find easy buckets, use my size around the basket,\u201d said Porter. \u201cSo coming over here, it\u2019s something that I have been intentional about. [Nic] Claxton and Day\u2019Ron [Sharpe] can really pass the ball and they found me for a lot of easy points around the rim. So I got to keep doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Claxton had a season-high four blocks to go with 17 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. His 15.2 points and 3.9 assist averages are career highs.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFollow all the basketball buzz in Brooklyn\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Nets by Brian Lewis, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Brooklyn\u2019s 129 points scored Sunday were a season high, and their most since scoring 132 at Portland on Jan. 14, 2025. They handed out a season-high 32 assists.<\/p>\n

Rookie point guard Ben Saraf got hurt with a second left in the first half of Long Island\u2019s last game playing on G-League assignment. The first-round pick hopped to the bench and didn\u2019t return. A source told The Post that it\u2019s an ankle injury and the guard is being evaluated, with an update expected Monday from the Nets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 They used to call Michael Porter Jr. \u201cNever Swing the Rock.\u201d After handing out a career-high…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,355,99,4600,21,9,24,63,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-41965","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-michael-porter-jr","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41965","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=41965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}