The Houston Rockets had been struggling to achieve liftoff this season. Despite being among the favorites to win the superior Western Conference, they entered today’s game with the same amount of wins and in the same position as the lottery lusting Brooklyn Nets.
However, that just made Brooklyn the perfect launch pad to get Houston’s title pursuit started.
After falling behind by double digits early in their last two games, the Nets made it clear they’d had enough of that early tonight in Space City. Terance Mann and Michael Porter Jr. each began the game with some added aggression at the offensive end, probing into the paint early and often. The early burst helped lift Mann to his best game as a Net thus far, pitching in 22 points after shooting 8-11 from the field.
Saraf started again beside him, Porter Jr., Claxton, and Cam Thomas. Despite doing so in all of Brooklyn’s games thus far, he hasn’t played as much in second halves, and his case for a change tonight was weak. The far more athletic Amen Thompson had an easy time going left, right, or sometimes over him in the contest’s early minutes.
But between Mann’s hot start and some stay afloat threes from Day’Ron Sharpe and Tyrese Martin, the Nets kept this one a game for almost the entire first quarter. Yes, almost.
Tari Eason, who had a combined seven points in his first two games, scored eight in about two minutes, propelling Houston on a 15-0 run at the close of the opening quarter and into a 42-25 lead. First impressions have consistently been poor for Brooklyn this year. They’re now -41 in opening frames on the season.
Eason kept it up the second as well, going on to drop 20 points in his 15 minutes of first half play after nailing five triples. He finished the game with a game-high 22 points, five assists, and five boards.
Brooklyn eventually grew wise enough to take a page out of Eason’s book. After throwing the ball around Houston’s zone for a handful of minutes to open the second, curating high-percentage looks but unable to flush them, they finally pierced the Saran Wrap over the rim, going 5-7 from deep in the heart of the period.
Saraf even got in on the action, redeeming his prior defensive miscues and hitting the first two threes of his career. Cam Thomas got a “the future is now, old man,” moment, too.
Saraf went on to finish with six points, five assists, and two steals after shooting 2-8 from the field and 2-5 from deep. Thomas tallied nine points and two assists after shooting 3-9 from the field and 1-2 from deep.
Still, Houston led 71-60 at the half, and Brooklyn’s next two quarters of play contradicted their first. The Rockets opened up the third on a 13-2 run. In a blink, the Nets were back in a familiar place: down 20 points.
“It was just a run,” Fernández said postgame. “You saw it in the Charlotte game. You saw in the Cleveland game. I believe the San Antonio game, but the beginning of the third hasn’t been good, so that’s going to be addressed. Once again, it’s just a level of attention to detail, and to go there and put possessions together on both ends of the floor, and just be better.”
It didn’t help when Nic Claxton also picked up his fourth foul during that run, only for Day’Ron Sharpe to do the same a few minutes later. Brooklyn’s interior defense already appeared to have the strength of a wet paper towel tonight, as the Rockets went for 66 points in the paint, and that only softened things more.
Even with each Brooklyn center edging closer disqualification ahead of schedule, Fernández chose to ride with Sharpe. It was another good call by the young coach. Sharpe put in nine points in six minutes during the third, going 4-4 from the field.
I wish I could say that equated to anything on the scoreboard, but unfortunately, Sharpe’s burst was nothing more than another reach at a silver lining in a good old fashioned blowout. In fact, Brooklyn went into the fourth down by 26, then their largest deficit of the evening.
This time, Brooklyn made no comeback threat. The Nets simply could not stop Houston from filling it up, who nearly notched a 50/40/90 game as a team, posting .576/.500/.885 splits.
“It’s just acceptable to take an NBA game for granted, and our guys are trying, they just don’t know how much harder and focused they can do things,” Fernández said. “I believe they’ll keep taking those steps, a lot of them just lack experience, but we’re going to challenge them. The coaches are great, and we’re going to find a way to challenge, to sustain the focus every possession. It doesn’t matter if you play 20 seconds, if you play three minutes, if you play 10 minutes, your attention to detail and your effort has to be there.
As the Rocket lead swelled up to as many as 33, the Nets waived their white flag by giving their two-ways their first burn of the season. EJ Liddell contributed six points after shooting 2-3 from the field, including one made triple, and the Nets went quietly into the dark.
Final: Houston Rocket 137, Brooklyn Nets 109
Brooklyn held Egor Dëmin and Ziaire Williams out tonight. Williams fell hard on his back in the second half of Sunday’s game and mentioned postgame that he had issues moving around the court after. Dëmin’s day off seemed a bit more precautionary, as the Nets cited injury management for his left plantar fascia tear on the injury report.
- With his lone 3-pointer tonight, Cam Thomas tied Bojan Bogdanovic for 13th in franchise history in 3FGM (319). Next up is Keith Van Horn with 335.
- With his first offensive rebound tonight, Nic Claxton tied Jason Kidd for 11th in franchise history in offensive rebounds (698). Next up is George Johnson in with 712.
- Day’Ron Sharpe recorded his 15th career double-double and the first for a Net this season with 15 points and 10 boards in 20 minutes off the bench tonight.
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The Brooklyn Nets begin a three-game home stand Wednesday evening when they host the new look Atlanta Hawks. The Nets took one out of three vs Trae Young and company last year. Atlanta is out to 1-2 start, beating the Orlando Magic but falling to the Toronto Raptors and Oklahoma City Thunder.
