In every game this season, the Nets (5-17) have been underdogs \u2014 until now.<\/p>\n
The grand tanking plan faces perhaps its greatest hurdle in Saturday\u2019s lowly anticipated matchup against the Pelicans (3-20) at Barclays Center.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think our guys really care,\u201d Nets coach Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez said following the loss to Utah. \u201cAnd because they care, they\u2019re going to come back in the next game, they\u2019re going to focus and try to stay focused all the way through. You have to fight through physical fatigue and mental fatigue, which I get it, it\u2019s not easy. But I give the guys credit [with] how much they work, how much they care, and they try their best.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Brooklyn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/12-04-25-utah-jazz-116748559.jpg\")
Ben Saraf and Noah Clowney react during the Jazz\u2019s Dec. 4 game. Charles Wenzelberg for The New York Post<\/p>\n
The Pelicans\u2019 failures, unlike those of the Nets, have no payoff \u2014 having surrendered their 2026 first-round pick to acquire rookie Derik Queen \u2014 and have seen their season derailed by injuries and front office incompetence. <\/p>\n
For the trip to Brooklyn, New Orleans will be without its biggest star, Zion Williamson (adductor) \u2014 the former draft prize turned franchise burden \u2014 while Jordan Poole (quad) and Herb Jones (calf) could also miss more time.<\/p>\n
The Nets \u2014 already without second leading-scorer Cam Thomas (hamstring) \u2014 could counter their shorthanded opponent by again sitting leading-scorer Michael Porter Jr. (back soreness), who has missed three of the past five games. <\/p>\n
Porter is not listed on the Nets\u2019 injury report.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat last game, I didn\u2019t see him moving well,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said before resting Porter on Thursday for injury management. \u201cIt was muscle-related.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even as the Nets are in tank mode for the second straight season, a young roster with much to prove could again blow up the depressing scheme. <\/p>\n
![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/new-orleans-pelicans-center-derik-116754818.jpg\")
Derik Queen reacts during the Pelicans\u2019 Dec. 4 game. AP<\/p>\n
After winning just one of their first 12 games, the Nets have since gone 4-6, winning two of their past three games.<\/p>\n
Third-year big Noah Clowney is averaging over 20 points in his past seven games. <\/p>\n
Rookie Danny Wolf has been impactful since he began receiving real minutes last week, putting up 17 points, nine rebounds and three assists against the Jazz. <\/p>\n
Former lottery pick Ziaire Williams, 24, just scored 23 points off the bench.<\/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
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Even longest-tenured Net Nic Claxton is showcasing a new side. <\/p>\n
The team\u2019s leading-rebounder (7.5) and shot-blocker (1.3) is averaging a career-high 13.5 points but made his greatest leap as a distributor, averaging 6.3 assists in the past three games. <\/p>\n
After averaging fewer than two assists per game over his first six NBA seasons, the 26-year-old center leads the team in assists (4.2) this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI trust him,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said of Claxton. \u201cHe\u2019ll make the right play for his teammates. Sometimes, it will be to eat up the space, and if they go under, try to give a good angle on the handoffs. He\u2019s done a good job with screening assists, too. And some other times he has to be aggressive and take it to the rim.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019ve used him to bring the ball up at times and give him more freedom, even use him as a ball-handler on pick-and-rolls. That\u2019s why he\u2019s free to make those reads and help his teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Nets are more than a quarter of the way through their charade of a season. In the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,355,99,21,9137,9,24,63,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-62502","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-nba","13":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","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\/62502","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=62502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}