Nets put up fight but fall short in high-scoring loss to Cavaliers
CLEVELAND — The Nets desperately needed somebody other than Julius Randle and Michael Porter Jr.to step up.Egor Dëmin did just that.
But they had dug too deep a hole for the Russian’s late-game eruption and fourth-quarter shooting to dig them out of.After dropping their home opener, Brooklyn followed with a 125-121 loss to the Cavaliers on Saturday night before a sellout crowd of 19,432 at Rocket Arena, including team owner Joe Tsai.He made the trip to watch his team, and saw a heartbreaker.The Nets trailed by 22 after a Jaylon Tyson 3-pointer in the fourth quarter before storming back to pull within four.The Cavaliers had blown a 29-point cushion in losing at Philadelphia in their season opener.The Nets nearly pulled off a similar comeback.
Nearly.It was an encouraging performance for the Nets — who had dropped their season opener at home against Charlotte — and Dëmin, who had been horrible against the Hornets.He acknowledged a need to improve, and did just that.Dëmin had 22 points, six assists and 5-for-10 shooting from 3-point range.
He scored 15 in the fourth quarter, when Brooklyn sliced what had been a 22-point deficit to just two.It will be enough to buoy his confidence.But it was almost enough to win.“Yeah, I think it tells you a lot about how good of a leader he is at his age, because he has high expectations by himself,” coach Jordi Fernández said.
“And like I talked to him this morning, keep getting aggressive, still the things that I want you to do and the team needs you to, you have to do it.Don’t get down on yourself.“And the things defensively getting into the ball.
He’s a big guard; we know he can rebound well, so help us there, too.All those things.
Sometimes you think about it’s the first game, you want to see the ball go in; but sometimes just a good defense, a good deflection, a rebound also, gives you a little bit of confidence.And then things start happening.
And I thought that that anxiety a little bit of the f...