Friday marked one of the rare nights in which the Nets had at least four of their record five first-round picks healthy and available.
It resulted in a banner evening for their youngsters.
Egor Dëmin had a career night with 23 points, nine rebounds and five assists in 30:29, shooting 8 of 18 overall and 5 of 14 from deep.
The scoring and rebounding marked career highs.
His five 3-pointers made tied the third-most by a Nets rookie, one off the record shared by Kerry Kittles (Feb. 17, 1997) and Bojan Bogdanovic (April 10, 2015).
The Russian teenager again showed the penchant for growing stronger deeper into games. After a scoreless first half, he had 15 points in the fourth quarter, hitting 3 of 6 from behind the arc.
“I think we just needed to really flip the switch and find a way,” Dëmin said after the Nets’ 115-103 loss to the 76ers in NBA Cup play. “And for me, it was the moment where I felt it better. And I found that extra energy in myself. And then I start feeling it a little bit better.”
Danny Wolf saw his first extended NBA action.
After being the only player in the G League averaging 20 points and 10 rebounds, the big man got called up from Long Island to fill in for injured Michael Porter Jr.
“Great. It’s always good to get an opportunity,” Wolf said. “They say be ready, and I try my best to do that. And felt great to get out there and have an opportunity and try to do what I could to help the team win. Obviously, we fell short, and that’s what matters. [We’ve] got another chance [Saturday] night in Milwaukee.”
Wolf had five points and five rebounds in 12:46 off the bench.
He finished plus-6, the only Net with a positive plus-minus on Friday.
“I thought he looked super confident, and I really liked the way he got on the court with, as I said, just really confident, really like he’s been there before,” Dëmin said of Wolf. “He’s playing basketball for a while, he’s been in college for a couple of years. So he knows how it is. And I thought he was ready. And he did some impact, for sure.”
Nic Claxton had 12 points with six rebounds and one block.
The center is riding a streak of 14 straight games with a block, the longest streak in the NBA this season and tied as the second longest in his career, behind only his 17 in a row 2022-23.
Ziaire Williams, who logged a DNP in the last game, started at small forward with Porter out. He had 10 points and four rebounds.
The Nets said Nov. 7 that Cam Thomas’ hamstring injury would be reevaluated in 3-4 weeks, with Friday the three-week mark.
“Right now, it’s three, and we said three to four. It’s not four yet, so there’s no update,” coach Jordi Fernández said.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
