{"id":89149,"date":"2026-01-05T00:35:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T00:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/89149\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T00:35:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T00:35:11","slug":"nets-michael-porter-jr-shines-in-payback-victory-over-nuggets-after-offseason-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/89149\/","title":{"rendered":"Nets’ Michael Porter Jr. shines in payback victory over Nuggets after offseason trade"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brooklyn\u2019s Michael Porter Jr. returned from illness just in time to face the team that traded him over the summer. And he made that reunion a winning one.<\/p>\n

Porter led the Nets to a 127-115 victory over the Nuggets before a sellout crowd of 17,548 at Barclays Center on Sunday. It snapped a three-game skid, and was some sweet payback for the veteran forward, who was salary dumped by Denver.<\/p>\n

The Nets (11-22) had a season-high six players muster at least 13 points as they shot 50.6 percent and 14-for-33 from deep. But it was Porter who led the way with an efficient game-high-tying 27 points, 11 rebounds and five assists.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I would be in his shoes, I would be very excited to play this game,\u201d Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez said beforehand of Porter, whom he spent four seasons with as a Denver assistant. \u201cI have no doubt in my mind that he\u2019s going to go out there and perform on both ends. So it\u2019s an exciting, exciting day for all of us, especially for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MichaelMichael Porter Jr. of the Brooklyn Nets slams the ball in the second half. The Brooklyn Nets defeat the Denver Nuggets at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, Sunday, January 04, 2026. JASON SZENES\/ NY POST<\/p>\n

A starter on the Nuggets team that won the 2023 title, Porter nevertheless took a backseat to the two-man game of Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. The Nets dealt Cam Johnson for Porter and Denver\u2019s unprotected 2032 first-round pick, a swap that was initially panned but is looking more and more like a Brooklyn steal.<\/p>\n

Entering Sunday, Porter was the only qualified player in the East averaging at least 25 points and seven rebounds, and one of five in the entire league, joining Jokic, Luka Doncic, Lauri Markkanen and Deni Avdija. More to the point, the Nets are winless without him (0-6), but 11-16 with him \u2014 winning eight of his last 11.<\/p>\n

With Jokic sidelined by a hyperextended left knee, Murray poured in 27 points and 16 assists, while Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 26.<\/p>\n

The Nets had more than enough to overcome that behind Porter and Noah Clowney (20 points).<\/p>\n

Brooklyn was clinging to a tenuous 63-56 lead after Murray found Peyton Watson underneath 1:51 into the second half. But they ripped off an extended 21-10 run over the next five minutes, including the final seven unanswered points to seize control of the game. They never gave the lead back.<\/p>\n

\"MichaelMichael Porter Jr. of the Brooklyn Nets looks for the open man as Daron Holmes II of the Denver Nuggets defends in the second half. The Brooklyn Nets defeat the Denver Nuggets at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, Sunday, January 04, 2026. JASON SZENES\/ NY POST<\/p>\n

The Nets hit eight of nine shots in the blitz, including all four from 3-point range. Egor D\u00ebmin had five points and two assists in the game-deciding run, including the final dagger off a Porter feed to make it 84-66 with 5:10 left in the third.<\/p>\n

Brooklyn built the lead to 19 and never let it get below double digits, seeing the game out behind Porter.<\/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

\u201cHe\u2019s got a lot of freedom here. This trade was good for everybody. He won a championship with us. He\u2019s one of the main reasons we did it,\u201d said Nuggets coach David Adelman, who was an assistant alongside Fern\u00e1ndez. \u201cAny time you win the whole thing, the role was appropriate. Michael, we know how talented he is.<\/p>\n

\u201cMike has this ability, he always has, but for us, he sacrificed \u2026 Our two-man game has been successful, and him in the corner with Aaron Gordon in the dunker spot, was quite a thing. Michael, I thought we used him in the right way. I\u2019m sure he\u2019d disagree with me completely, which is OK, but we won a lot of games doing it that way. It\u2019s cool to see him have some more freedom here under Jordi.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brooklyn\u2019s Michael Porter Jr. returned from illness just in time to face the team that traded him over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,355,99,9134,4600,21,9,24,63,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-89149","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-denver-nuggets","13":"tag-michael-porter-jr","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-city","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89149","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=89149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}