After combining for just 27 points on 7-of-24 shooting in the Nets’ season opener, Cam Thomas and Michael Porter Jr. bounced back in the Nets’ 131-124 loss to the Cavaliers in Friday night’s home opener.
Thomas poured in 33 points and nine assists — one shy of his career high — while Porter added 31 points on 5-of-10 shooting with eight rebounds.
After Thomas had a quiet two-point first quarter, his Nets teammates urged him to start attacking.
He scored 31 in the final three periods, along with seven assists.
“My teammates saying be aggressive, we need you to be aggressive and they’ll play off me. So I think that really helped,” said Thomas. “At the end of day you want to play the right way and still find the guys. But at the same time I still have to be myself and be aggressive, and then find guys when they’re open. I think I did a good job of that, they made shots very proud of everybody. Just want to keep building on it.”
It marked Brooklyn’s first game with two 30-point scorers since Nov. 6, 2023 vs. Milwaukee, when Thomas had 45 and Mikal Bridges added 31.
Egor Dëmin was 3-of-5 from 3-point range in 25 minutes off the bench.
His seven 3s in the past two games tie Keegan Murray for the third most by a rookie in their first two career games in league history, behind only Chris Duarte’s nine and P.J. Washington’s eight.
Ziaire Williams made a career-high-tying nine field goals and a career-high-tying six 3-pointers en route to 25 points. That’s the second most in any game in his career.
“Ziaire was extremely active and was shooting well, so sometimes you got to read the game, and I felt like he needed to be there,” said coach Jordi Fernández.
A fan ran onto the court with 5:02 left, and was wrestled away by security.
Drake Powell (right ankle sprain), Danny Wolf (left ankle sprain) and Haywood Highsmith (right knee surgery) were all out vs. Cleveland.
Fernández would not give a grade on Powell or Wolf, but said the rookie first-round picks are both day to day. The Nets play a Texas back-to-back Sunday in San Antonio and Monday in Houston.
Fernández on the illegal gambling arrests that shook up the league on Thursday: “Yeah, that’s personal, that’s outside of basketball, and obviously that’s not the news that you want to hear. I think the NBA does a great job every year with, you know, doing the gambling meeting, the rules and so on and so forth, because we deal with young players, and I think they can follow the proper steps. We support it, and that’s just how much I can say.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
