Cam Thomas, Michael Porter Jr. combine for 64 points in bounce-back effort

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.Sign up for Inside the Nets by Brian Lewis, exclusively on Sports+.

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