Le Journal

The Philadelphia 76ers were not in a giving mood this Black Friday. Having already squandered their 6-1 start to the season by going 3-7 since, Philly entered the Barclays Center as desperate as a shopper sleeping outside a store ahead this retail-related national “holiday.”And the Nets, like many unfortunate bystanders before online shopping took over, got trampled. Brooklyn had to handle Philly without their leading scorer as well. Michael Porter Jr sat out his first game of the season tonight. He was the one with back tightness, but it was the Nets on the floor who looked stiff. As we all know by now, MPJ carries a rare skillset which often allows him to turn possessions going nowhere into two or three points. It’s been useful so far this year considering the limited offensive firepower the Nets have rostered, but tonight, without he or Cam Thomas, driving down the floor became like driving down a dead-end road. Brooklyn did its best to avoid getting in those situations early on. Even with a healthy MPJ or CT out there, it’s not like Jordi Fernández wants every possession to end with a desperation heave, but the Nets seemed to make an even stronger effort to avoid those situations tonight, playing an aggressive brand of offense, unafraid to let it fly early in the shot clock. It was a chess move that made sense, but didn’t render an advantage. The Nets started the game 1-of-10 from deep, 8-of-22 from the field, and fell behind the 76ers 31-23 after the first. Their lack of shooting, spacing and ball-handling also caught up to them down the stretch of the frame, where the Nets committed five turnovers. Egor Dëmin, forced to face Philly’s tight ball-pressure, was among the many who struggled early, giving away one possession and starting 0-of-3 from the field. In fact, at the end of the first half, the scoreboard showed a goose egg. He also faced matchup nightmares at the other end dealing with the far more athletic Quentin Grimes and Tyrese Maxey, who combined for 41 points tonight. “They’re really good players, which is not an excuse for myself or any body else, definitely, and I think that’s my next step where I have to really get on the next level to guard players like that, who are really quick, really aggressive, physical, and they’ve been in the league for a while,” Demin said. “That’s kind of a goal for myself.” Dëmin would have more to say on the court later on, but things got worse before that. Brooklyn’s weak start was enough to make Philly comfortable starting Kyle Lowry to begin the second quarter, who has played a total of three minutes all season so far for Philly. He didn’t do a whole lot out there, but his teammates quickly pushed the contest into blowout territory. You all know Paul George, who added six in the period. But Brooklyn also got beat by Adem Bona in the second, who contributed six points and outscored each still struggling Net minus Nic Claxton and Tyrese Martin. This made it one of Brooklyn’s more frustrating quarters after putting together several promising ones over the past few weeks, even if they were outscored in them. “I think the biggest challenge is to ask the team to play hard and play focused, and we’re back to square one,” Jordi Fernández said. “And it happens…But when you are asking to play really hard and stay focused, you’re not coaching. Right now, that’s a little of what we have. The last three games there was maybe some sort of like, we felt good because we were better in that five game stretch, and the Boston game was the beginning of that five game stretch. Then, we started a new one, and go to Toronto, not ready, come back with the Knicks, the energy level’s not all the way through, and tonight we start. We have to just be responsible, all of us, on how we approach games and all that stuff.” Roughly halfway through the second, Terance Mann didn’t crash the class with enough urgency, allowing Bona to swoop in, push him aside, and grab a rebound that he then…

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