WASHINGTON — The Nets picked up their second win of the season Sunday.
Were their victories Pyrrhic, or were they progress?
Brooklyn routed Washington 129-106 before a small gathering at CapitalOne Arena, listed as 14,164 but appearing about half that size. They came out on a football Sunday to watch a pair of teams tanking for lottery positioning, and the Nets lose by winning.
The blowout saw the Nets improve to 2-11, the third-worst record in the league — and thus, third seed in the lottery. Both wins came against the two teams “ahead” of them, with the Wizards and Pacers both a league-worst 1-12.
Michael Porter Jr. #17 of the Brooklyn Nets drives to the basket during the game against the Washington Wizards on Nov. 16, 2025. NBAE via Getty Images
And while Washington dropped its 11th straight game, the Nets have won two of their last six, leading by as many as 24 points and showing improvement on the glass and on defense.
“We’re trying to get one percent better,” Nets coach Jordi Fernández said. “We try to challenge our guys to play the right way. We had a few games where we showed signs of consistent competitiveness, and then we had a really poor game, and now we’re back to two games of being pretty competitive. Now we want to show the third one.
“When you’re trying to achieve the things you believe are the right things in style of play, that’s when you start seeing the outcome. And not just the outcome; it’s the development. It’s all together, if you think about it. So I don’t think it’s a battle of (standings); we care about ourselves. We want our players to get better one through 17. The growth of the coaching staff and the organization, that’s our vision.”
Brooklyn has displayed growth, even despite the loss of leading scorer Cam Thomas.
Fernández challenged Michael Porter Jr. to cut and move and give up himself to help his teammates. The veteran had a game-high 33 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, finishing a plus-16.
The Nets have struggled on defense and the boards, their average of 26.7 defensive rebounds coming into Sunday the worst since 1998-99, according to Elias. Their 62.5 defensive rebound percentage was the third-worst in recorded league history, and worst since the 1997-98 Raptors. But they won that battle against Washington.
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Brooklyn won the glass 44-33, and the defensive boards 37-30. And it held the woebegone Wizards to just 44 percent shooting, blocking eight shots.
And after Alex Sarr came in averaging 19.1 points and 8.6 rebounds, they held last year’s No. 2 draft pick to just nine points and three boards before fouling out. Nic Claxton took up the challenge and had 17 points, nine boards, seven assists and four blocks as the Nets had an all-around performance.
“It goes back to our staples, and everything we do to measure them,” Fernández said. “And whatever the outcome is, if we take care of those things — our ball pressure, our communication, our multiple efforts, our pace-and-space, and our paint touches and our ball rotation — if we accomplish all that, it’s going to work out.
Nic Claxton #33 of the Brooklyn Nets drives to the basket during the game against the Washington Wizards on Nov. 16, 2025. NBAE via Getty Images
“It may not be (Sunday). If we do all those things very well…if we keep doing it, we’re going to see it. And we’re not obsessed with scoring more points than the other team. We’re obsessed with playing consistently the right way and playing a good brand of basketball.”
Tyrese Martin had 20 points for Brooklyn and finished plus-26.