{"id":77578,"date":"2025-12-22T03:03:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T03:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/77578\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T03:03:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T03:03:09","slug":"nets-use-suddenly-stifling-defense-to-rout-raptors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/77578\/","title":{"rendered":"Nets use suddenly stifling defense to rout Raptors"},"content":{"rendered":"

From October to now, the Nets defense has gone from sieve to stout.<\/p>\n

Sunday, it was smothering.<\/p>\n

Brooklyn rolled to a 96-81 rout of the visiting Raptors before a sellout crowd of 17,548 at Barclays Center.<\/p>\n

And it wasn\u2019t high-scoring offense that led the way but suddenly stifling work on the other end of the floor.<\/p>\n

The Nets (8-19) allowed their fewest points of the season, besting the 82 they\u2019d conceded in a 45-point rout of Milwaukee exactly a week earlier. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s the first time they\u2019ve held foes to 82 points or fewer multiple times in a season since 2018-19.<\/p>\n

And defense is becoming less of a fluke and more of an expectation.<\/p>\n

The Nets are holding opponents to just 102.3 points per game so far in December, the fewest in the NBA, surpassing the reigning champion Thunder. <\/p>\n

Considering the embarrassing way they opened this season \u2014 compiling a league-worst 128.5 defensive rating during an 0-7 start \u2014 the turnaround is shocking.<\/p>\n

\"BrooklynNoah Clowney defends during the Nets\u2019 Dec. 21 win over the Raptors. Heather Khalifa for the NY Post<\/p>\n

The Nets matched their best defensive first quarter (18 points) and had their best defensive half (39 points) of the season. <\/p>\n

Then they went out and closed the deal.<\/p>\n

Trailing 71-69 with 10:10 after a bucket by Toronto\u2019s Immanuel Quickley, the Nets mounted a 24-6 blitz.<\/p>\n

They held the Raptors to 1-of-10 shooting in that run and hit 10-of-13 themselves to seize the game.<\/p>\n

Michael Porter Jr. had 24 points and 11 rebounds, while lottery pick Egor D\u00ebmin added 16 points, five rebounds, two steals and hit 4-of-8 from deep.<\/p>\n

\"TorontoThe Nets defend against Brandon Ingram during their win Dec. 21. Heather Khalifa for the NY Post<\/p>\n

The Nets held Toronto to 37.2 percent shooting and 10-of-36 from 3-point range.<\/p>\n

With the game knotted at 36-all with 3:20 left in the half on Brandon Ingram\u2019s driving layup, the Nets untied it.<\/p>\n

Noah Clowney\u2019s free throw capped a 14-3 run that spanned intermission and put the Nets ahead 50-39.<\/p>\n

The lead was 67-54 with 1:47 left in the third quarter, when the Nets offense went into a funk. <\/p>\n

They coughed up 15 unanswered points and the lead.<\/p>\n

By the time Brooklyn missed five straight shots and gave away a couple of turnovers, Quickley had found Collin Murray-Boyles for a running dunk and put the Nets in a 69-67 hole just over a minute into the fourth.<\/p>\n

But the Nets answered right back with a 15-4 blitz of their own.<\/p>\n

Porter Jr. stemmed the tide, bullying in for a game-tying layup.<\/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

D\u00ebmin drilled a 3-pointer that made it 79-73 and sent the Raptors scurrying for a timeout. <\/p>\n

And Clowney rattled home a left-corner 3 of his own to cap the run and pad the cushion to 82-73. <\/p>\n

They pulled away from there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From October to now, the Nets defense has gone from sieve to stout. Sunday, it was smothering. Brooklyn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,355,99,21,9,24,63,319,1265],"class_list":{"0":"post-77578","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-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-toronto-raptors"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77578","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=77578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}