The Brooklyn Nets are still searching for their first win of the 2026-27 season, and they’ll have to find it on tired legs.
Brooklyn nearly erased a 22-point deficit in Cleveland on Saturday, outscoring the Cavaliers 41-29 in the fourth quarter before falling 125-121. The Nets return to Barclays Center on Sunday to face the Indiana Pacers in the second game of a back-to-back.
Meanwhile, sixth-overall pick Mikel Brown Jr. won’t be active for this one. He’s already on a minutes restriction and it looks like the Nets will keep him out of second night of back-to-backs for the foreseeable future. He rolled his ankle in the preseason.
But is there something else we should be keeping an eye on? In today’s injury report, the Nets listed Mikel Brown Jr. out with “Back, Injury Management.” He missed time during training camp due to a rolled ankle, but this is the first we’ve heard anything related to his back. Brown Jr. missed 12 games including the NCAA tournament last season in Louisville. Should we be worried?
Indiana arrives in Brooklyn coming off their own 16-point loss to the Dallas Mavericks.
Game Info & How to Watch
- Matchup: Brooklyn Nets (0-2) vs. Indiana Pacers (1-1)
- Time: 6:00 PM ET
- Location: Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York
- TV/Streaming: YES Network and DAZN
Nets-Pacers Injury Report
Brooklyn Nets
- Mikel Brown Jr. — OUT
- Tyler Bilodeau — OUT
Indiana Pacers
- T.J. McConnell – OUT
- Johnny Furphy – OUT
- Ben Sheppard – OUT
- Braden Smith – DOUBTFUL
Check the official injury report closer to tip-off for any updates.
The Game
The Nets showed fight in Cleveland with the comeback. We can’t call it a win, but we can call it encouraging.
Julius Randle is averaging 28 points, seven rebounds, and six assists through two games, while Michael Porter Jr. is averaging 27 points and seven rebounds. Brooklyn trailed by double digits most of the game, but these two kept Brooklyn afloat. That’s also when Egor Dëmin and Mikel Brown Jr. joined in on the fun.
Day’Ron Sharpe fell into foul trouble for a second consecutive game. He picked up a sixth foul – a flagrant – with 6:54 remaining in the fourth quarter. The Nets aren’t built with much size at the five after Sharpe. In the season opener, the Charlotte Hornets shot 17-of-22 at the rim. Brooklyn followed with a good effort on the boards on Saturday, but they still lost the paint battle 46-30 and came up with one blocked shot compared to Cleveland’s 10.
The Indiana Pacers feature a star-studded frontcourt with Pascal Siakam at the four and Ivica Zubac at the five. It’s certainly something to watch out for as the Nets try defending the paint — with a ton of weight on Sharpe.
Player to Watch: Ivica Zubac
First and foremost, it’s good to see Tyrese Haliburton back on the court and playing well. He’s always a player to watch and we all know that. For this particular match, keeping Zubac off the glass is a task that’s about 7-feet too tall. Brooklyn has struggled to contain bigs in recent years.
Zubac’s size and rebounding make him a difficult matchup for Brooklyn, particularly with the Nets struggling to protect the rim and contain opposing centers. Indiana can stretch the floor and put pressure on Brooklyn’s interior defense, forcing the Nets to account for both perimeter movement and Zubac’s presence around the basket.
If Day’Ron Sharpe gets into foul trouble again, Brooklyn could struggle to defend Zubac inside and limit Indiana’s second-chance opportunities.
Hornets center Moussa Diabate finished with 17 points, eight rebounds (five offensive), and five steals against the Nets. Cavs center Jarrett Allen logged 21 points, eight rebounds and two blocks on 7-of-8 shooting in yesterday’s game.
Zubac is star and he’s shown it thus far, averaging 12.5 points, 13 rebounds and 1.5 blocked shots per game. Brooklyn struggles here most — it only feels inevitable Zubac gives them trouble.
Will Mikel Brown Jr. & Egor Dëmin play more together?
Jordi Fernández was asked whether he had seen enough from Brown and Dëmin together to want to use that pairing more often when Brown’s minutes restriction allows it.
His answer offered a glimpse into how he approaches lineup decisions (H/T Brian Lewis):
“Yeah. The way I would explain this is when you’re coaching the game, if you’re coaching thinking you want to play certain guys together, it’s when usually you’re doing it for the wrong reasons. And a lot of times you have to coach the game feeling the game,” Fernández said. “Obviously you have a preparation, you look at their matchups, their sub patterns, yours, your lineups, and you have an ideal way of how you want the game to go. But then when the game goes, there’s fouls, there’s guys that play better, worse. Then you have to start coaching the game and see who can guard this guy or all these things. And I think then the game flows.”
Then…
“Then that’s when I felt like it was a good moment to play together. Did I plan it? No. But a lot of times it’s how basketball is. We have all this preparation, the coaches do a great job putting all these pages and film and so forth. But then at the end of the day, you have to react to a lot of things that are not controllable in the game. And that’s why I know that I’ve gotten this question before, would I like to play them together? Yes. But if I’m just thinking about playing them together, I may not do what’s best for the group at the moment. So that’s the way I feel.”
From The Vault
On this date in 1964, The Rolling Stones made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show
The Stones opened with Chuck Berry’s “Around and Around” and fans screamed so loudly that Sullivan struggled to speak over them, repeatedly asking that the crowd quiet down. CBS received complaints after the broadcast and Ed Sullivan reportedly said: “I promise you they’ll never be back on our show. It took me 17 years to build this show and I’m not going to have it destroyed in a matter of weeks” and wrote to them, “I would like to learn from you, whether your young men have reformed in the matter of dress and shampoo.”
So much for that. The Rolling Stones went on to make five more appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show through 1969… and they’re still making music.
Read More: Fear the Sword, Sports Illustrated, SB Nation NBA, New York Post, New York Daily News, Clutch Points, Nets Wire, Nets Insider, SNY, Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Steve’s Newsletter.
- Brooklyn Nets Game Notes – Brooklyn Nets
- Indiana Pacers Game Notes – Indiana Pacers
