{"id":93770,"date":"2026-01-08T15:48:40","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T15:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/93770\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T15:48:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T15:48:40","slug":"brooklyn-nets-lose-thriller-vs-orlando-magic-104-103-despite-demin-heroics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/93770\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn Nets lose thriller vs Orlando Magic 104-103 despite Demin heroics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez began his postgame presser tonight dispelling the notion that this contest was a \u201crollercoaster\u201d game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it was a rollercoaster for us,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was 14-to-29 for us; we won by 15 points in the fourth. So, it was an amazing effort to come back, to try to do the right thing and to play with urgency.\u201d<\/p>\n

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While all else is true, my stomach begs to differ on the coaster categorization. I\u2019d bet anyone watching on behalf of the visiting Orlando Magic would agree as well. And anyone from Egor D\u00ebmin\u2019s family probably felt the same way. The 19-year-old Russian had his best game, at least from the final moments in regulation till three seconds left in OT. Take a look\u2026<\/p>\n

More on all that later.<\/p>\n

Whatever you want to call tonight\u2019s ride for Brooklyn, it started slow. The Net defense looked rather lethargic to begin game no. 34. Service Steel Warehouse says in some cases, it can take as little as three days for iron to oxidize beyond repair, and the Nets supported that claim early on. Their otherwise ferric defense, which we haven\u2019t seen since Sunday, looked quite rusty to begin the game. Day\u2019Ron Sharpe got lost a few times after switches. The Nets also gave up nine first quarter offensive rebounds, pulling down just seven themselves at the defensive end.<\/p>\n

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However, and miraculously, the Nets still outscored the Magic in second chance points that period. Even with those extra opportunities to score, Orlando shot just 36.4% in the first. Their poor shooting would set a standard for the first half that could make even a 90s basketball nostalgist quease.<\/p>\n

Alas, Michael Porter Jr. was a proud nonconformist once more. During and beyond the opening frame, he continued to hit greens like Tiger Woods at Augusta National in \u201997. He poured in 12 first period points while shooting 5-9 from the field. He scored or assisted on 15 of Brooklyn\u2019s first 19 points to begin the evening.<\/p>\n

Our other known bucket-getter, Cam Thomas, didn\u2019t come off the bench until the the 3:48 point of the first. He was part of a hockey line-like change that saw Nic Claxton, Danny Wolf, Nolan Traore, and Drake Powell join him in the first. In his return, Claxton put in seven points on 3-4 shooting in 23 minutes played. He also grabbed six boards, dished four dimes, and blocked two shots.<\/p>\n

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CT, however, didn\u2019t get his first points until the waining seconds of the first, where he ran down the clock, rocked, an rolled the ball just over a soaring Wendell Carter Jr. to keep Brooklyn within a bucket ahead the second. Thomas remained a non-factor when things sped up in the fourth, finishing with just 10 points while shooting 3-11 from the field.<\/p>\n

The Nets seized a brief lead to begin period two, but you wouldn\u2019t have remembered with how the rest of the frame played out. The Magic show in the second was far better than the first, as Orlando managed to shoot 8-19 from the field while the Brooklyn defense continued to look a step behind on its rotations.<\/p>\n

Even with Orlando\u2019s offensive resurgence, both teams shot a combined 38.6% form the field and 24.9% from deep. It was a rock fight by all accounts, and the Nets ended up under more of the rubble, behind the Magic at the break by a 48-43 score.<\/p>\n

Absent from the first half, and eventually the entire game, was Terance Mann. Every night, there\u2019s a veteran victimized by Brooklyn\u2019s desire to give out development minutes, and this evening, Mann pulled the short stick.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYeah, it\u2019s just a matter of having a lot of a lot of players performing well, giving looks at different roles for different players, and he\u2019ll be back,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cSo, it\u2019s just a matter of me just seeing those roles and seeing those minutes. That\u2019s pretty much it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, if Brooklyn really wanted to focus on the rebuild, they\u2019d put Porter Jr. in that position for a night, or even on another team. He made that abundantly clear in the third, reprising his role as Brooklyn\u2019s lone offensive option in, scoring eight of Brooklyn\u2019s first 10 points to start the quarter.<\/p>\n

However, Orlando went on a 21-4 run in the latter part of the period, and quickly shifted the offensive embarrassment solely onto Brooklyn\u2019s side. Had they a few extra seconds to play with, it could have been even worse too\u2026<\/p>\n

Brooklyn\u2019s 15-point deficit to being the fourth set the stage for a period free of competitive pressure and ideal for player development, and the Nets seemed to take advantage, giving Powell, Wolf, and Traore some extended run alongside Claxton and Thomas.<\/p>\n

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Then, Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez did the unthinkable among tank commanders, putting Porter Jr. and the original starting lineup back in the game with a little over five minutes to play. MPJ promptly hit two threes in about thirty seconds to make it an eight point game with 4:56 to go. That helped him get his 10th 30-point game of the season. He had that same amount of 30-pieces in all four of his prior seasons combined.<\/p>\n

Two minutes later, D\u00ebmin found Clowney cutting along the baseline for an easy finish that made it a six point game. D\u00ebmin followed that with a three and then Clowney slipped in a fadeaway that made it a one point game. The Nets were on a 17-4 run, and grinding their way to another improbable comeback.<\/p>\n

The next time down the floor, Clowney the ball through the hoop, but didn\u2019t score\u2026<\/p>\n

There was one square foot in the entire building where Day\u2019Ron Sharpe needed to keep his hand away from to have Brooklyn go ahead, but he stuck it there anyway. As Clowney\u2019s next shot fell into the net, he got caught with his hand in the basket, and tagged with a basket interference violation. That kept things at 91-90 with 1:03 to play.<\/p>\n

But the madness was just beginning. Out of a subsequent Orlando timeout, Tristan da Silva got free for a dunk that put the Magic up three with 16 seconds to play.<\/p>\n

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Then, the Winter Soldier activated. D\u00ebmin, who\u2019s already made clutch scoring a habit, hit a triple after a Kryptonian rebound from a redemptive Sharpe. Before that, D\u00ebmin hadn\u2019t scored until there were around three minutes left in regulation, but game\u2019s dwindling minutes again called the stone cold Russian into action. He wanted overtime, and got it.<\/p>\n

Egor had more to say in the extra period, but wouldn\u2019t get the last laugh. After both teams went back and forth for a bit to open the extra frame before D\u00ebmin nailed an even deeper tre after a jump ball to give the Nets their first lead since the 44 second mark of the first quarter. Orlando responded with another dunk, which D\u00ebmin again traded for a three, this one more otherworldly than the rest\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was amazing,\u201d D\u00ebmin said of the crowd after his shots. \u201cI thought it was awesome. I think it helped us a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

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With all the momentum in the world, that rocking crowd behind him, and a lead that felt twice its size given the game\u2019s nature, Brooklyn looked certain to complete the comeback this time. But the wacky game needed an ending of the same nature. So, Paolo called bank(ero)\u2026<\/p>\n

That shot finally brought us to our finish after all those twists, turns, and full-on loops. Brooklyn had lost, and Fern\u00e1ndez and D\u00ebmin knew it, but they also acknowledged the positives postgame.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually just was thinking about it, like, that was one of those moments when in high school, when I was a kid, I was shooting alone in the gym and thinking about moments like this, and kind of going through things,\u201d he said. \u201cLike, \u2018okay, I\u2019m hitting the shot, the game winning shot, and you know, five threes in a row,\u2019 or whatever it is. And this was one of those, the moments that I was kind of manifesting when I was a kid\u2026So it was \u2014 it felt really, really good. But again, we didn\u2019t get a win, so it doesn\u2019t really matter anymore, and we\u2019re going into the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cGive credit to Paolo, amazing player, and amazing players make amazing shots,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cI also think our guys made amazing shots. Proud of all of them. You know, towards the end, Noah, Egor, and Mike scored throughout the whole game. It was really good to see, and it was good to see the defense in the fourth.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a year and a half now, the Nets have had an odd objective of playing winning basketball without actually winning games. It\u2019s an an infinitesimal target, nearly impossible to see, and equally as difficult to hit, but they did so tonight. Who cares if no one called bank?<\/p>\n

Final: Orlando Magic 104, Brooklyn Nets 103<\/p>\n

Trade Talk<\/p>\n

Trae Young trade buzz hovered over almost every NBA game tonight, ours included. That said, Jake Fischer and Brett Siegel did their best to end any speculation of Ice Trae coming to the Big Apple. In his substack<\/a> with Marc Stein, Fischer noted that while Young expressed an interest in Brooklyn and Minnesota as destinations, neither team reciprocates that feeling. Siegel published a similar report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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All checked out, as Shams Charania reported a few minutes before the end of tonight\u2019s contest that the Washington Wizards won the Young \u201csweepstakes\u201d if you can even still call them that. For the Nets, at least that means one less tank competitor.<\/p>\n

Contract News<\/p>\n

In other news, Mike Scotto of HoopsHype reported Wednesday morning that the Nets planned to fully guarantee both Jalen Wilson and Tyrese Martin\u2019s contracts for the rest of the season. They had until 5 p.m. on Wednesday to either cut or keep both players. Each will now finish what\u2019ll be their third seasons as NBA pros in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

Milestone Watch<\/p>\n

Michael Porter Jr. has tied his career high with eight 3-pointers tonight against Orlando (8-for-14), originally accomplished on 4\/24\/21 with Denver vs. Houston.<\/p>\n

D\u00ebmin made two 3-pointers in the final 30 seconds of the fourth + OT to tie or to take the lead. He\u2019s the second rookie ever to do so (Kevin Durant on 4\/6\/2008).<\/p>\n

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Next Up\"\"<\/p>\n

Brooklyn stays home on Friday to host the Los Angeles Clipper for the first time this season. LA beat the Nets both times last year by a combined 91 points (yikes!). That said, hard times have since fallen upon James Harden and company. The Clippers resemble on of the league\u2019s messiest disappointments this year. Despite having won seven of their last 10, they\u2019re still 14-23 and currently outside the Play-In looking in. The game tips off at 7:30 p.m. EST.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez began his postgame presser tonight dispelling the notion that this contest was a \u201crollercoaster\u201d game. \u201cI…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1262,98,100,355,99,4602,44055,44052,44054,7937,20470,44051,7672,7935,9422,23659,27721,4570,18926,44056,4600,5800,9,24,4601,63,1264,22768,4606,14713,23455,19720,1105,44053],"class_list":{"0":"post-93770","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-atlanta-hawks","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","11":"tag-brooklyn-nets","12":"tag-brooklyn-news","13":"tag-cam-thomas","14":"tag-cj-mccollum","15":"tag-clowney","16":"tag-corey-kispert","17":"tag-danny-wolf","18":"tag-dayron-sharpe","19":"tag-demin","20":"tag-denver","21":"tag-drake-powell","22":"tag-houston","23":"tag-jalen-wilson","24":"tag-james-harden","25":"tag-jordi-fernandez","26":"tag-kevin-durant","27":"tag-los-angeles-clipper","28":"tag-michael-porter-jr","29":"tag-minnesota","30":"tag-new-york","31":"tag-new-york-city","32":"tag-nic-claxton","33":"tag-nyc","34":"tag-orlando-magic","35":"tag-paolo-banchero","36":"tag-terance-mann","37":"tag-trae-young","38":"tag-tristan-da-silva","39":"tag-tyrese-martin","40":"tag-washington-wizards","41":"tag-wendell-carter-jr"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93770","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=93770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}