PHILADELPHIA \u2014 The tank is in trouble.<\/p>\n
Brooklyn isn\u2019t just beating bad teams anymore. Now they\u2019re beating good ones.<\/p>\n
One game after blowing out Toronto, Michael Porter Jr. and his Nets earned an impressive road win, smothering the Sixers 114-106 before a salty sellout crowd of 19,746 at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The Nets \u2014 who stayed percentage points ahead of Charlotte for sixth in the lottery odds \u2014 backed up drilling the fifth-place Raptors by winning at fourth-place Philadelphia. They held the Sixers to 40.7 percent shooting and 7-for-27 from deep, and Porter did the rest.<\/p>\n
Porter had 25 of his game-high 28 points by intermission, the highest-scoring half of his career. And since an 0-7 start, the Nets are 9-12 \u2014 and 9-9 with Porter.<\/p>\n
Michael Porter Jr. of the Brooklyn Nets shoots a 3-point basket during the game against the Philadelphia 76ers on December, 23, 2025 at the Wells Fargo Center. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cIf teams keep (doubling) where they try to take me away, we\u2019re going to win because we\u2019ve got such capable players that can knock down shots at a high clip. We have competent guys that can put the ball on the floor and make plays, so teams really can\u2019t just focus on me,\u201d said Porter, who had a 4-point play and pointed at a heckler.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was some dude in the crowd. A couple of their fans were running their mouth, so I just pointed at them after I made the shot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Egor D\u00ebmin had eight of his 20 points in the fourth quarter and five assists, while Nic Claxton added 16 points and 10 rebounds.<\/p>\n
But it was the defense that made the difference. Terance Mann, D\u00ebmin and Nolan Traore made life tough on Tyrese Maxey. The star came in averaging 31.7 points, but was held to 13 on 3-of-14 shooting.<\/p>\n
Egor Demin of the Brooklyn Nets dribbles the ball during the game against the Philadelphia 76ers on December, 23, 2025 at the Wells Fargo Center. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just wasn\u2019t in the flow. He was a little frustrated. Some things may have been getting in his way out there, so it might have flustered him a little,\u201d said Claxton, who praised Porter\u2019s gravity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s just what All-Stars do. They come out and they play at an extremely high level every single night. They demand double teams. And we\u2019re getting better every day, easier for everybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joel Embiid had 27 for Philadelphia, but the Nets led by as many as 19 and pulled away in the second half.<\/p>\n
Nic Claxton of the Brooklyn Nets dribbles the ball during the game against the Philadelphia 76ers on December, 23, 2025 at the Wells Fargo Center. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
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It was tied 27-all after one, with Porter having 14 points on 5 of 6 shooting while the rest of the Nets had combined for just 13 on 4 of 16 from the floor.<\/p>\n
The Nets were clinging to a tenuous 70-65 edge after a tipin by Andre Drummond \u2014 his offensive rebounding was Philadelphia\u2019s only effective offense \u2014 when Brooklyn seized control with a 19-7 run that included seven unanswered points.<\/p>\n
D\u00ebmin sandwiched a pair of 3-pointers around a Maxey miss, the second completing a 4-point play to make it 77-65. On the other end, he was helping harass Maxey into having missed nine of his first ten attempts.<\/p>\n
Tyrese Martin padded the lead to 89-72 on a 3 with 1:58 left in the third.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Porter) makes open shots, he makes contested shots, and he makes impossible shots. He was huge for us,\u201d said Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez, whose Nets shut down Maxey.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always had bodies in front. And we all know how special of a player he is and how disruptive he is. He can drive you crazy throughout a game because he\u2019s that good. And today probably he didn\u2019t have the impact.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 The tank is in trouble. Brooklyn isn\u2019t just beating bad teams anymore. Now they\u2019re beating good…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,355,99,5235,4600,21,9,24,63,9126,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-79905","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-egor-demin","13":"tag-michael-porter-jr","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-city","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","19":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79905","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=79905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}