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Brooklyn Nets run out of gas against Cleveland Cavaliers, lose 110-97
Source: https://www.netsdaily.com/2025/2/20...liers-110-97-donovan-mitchell-dangelo-russell
Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images
The home team put up a truly valiant effort, but was eventually overwhelmed by Cleveland’s All-Star talent
The Brooklyn Nets exited the 2025 All-Star break as one of the league’s most fascinating teams. Truly.
It's not often you say that about a 20-34 squad, but how they treat the rest of the season is anybody’s guess. Does the front office believe Operation: Tank is really dead, and if not, how far are they willing to resuscitate it? Are Jordi Fernández and a cast of floor-diving journeymen going to continue defending at league-best levels?
Brooklyn’s first game out of the break wouldn’t illuminate much. A test against the 44-10 Cleveland Cavaliers and their league-best offense is difficult for any team, egregiously tanking or not. Armed with a week off and a near-full complement of players, the Nets were sure to play hard. How much that would matter was the question.
A lot, apparently.
Brooklyn took a 50-48 lead into the halftime break, and it would have been a bigger margin had they not turned it over a dozen times, many of them sloppy. Outside of that, though, it was a well-played half Fernández’s team was able to apply effective ball-pressure against Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell, and neither got off to a hot start.
A sold-out Barclays Center got loud for each offensive rebound Brooklyn recovered, each well-executed defensive rotation. Despite the rock-fight early — each team shot 26% from deep — it was not a lazy, post-break atmosphere. Especially not when the Nets closed the half on a 12-2 run to snatch the lead, electrified by Nic Claxton outplaying Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley...
Despite the opponent, it was the same game Brooklyn’s been playing for nearly a month now: poor shooting, high effort, and a close score. The Nets played exactly as opposing head coach and familiar face Kenny Atkinson described them, pregame.
“You know, Jordi, I feel like I’m watching a FIBA team, you know? And that’s a real compliment. It’s physicality and extreme physicality, and I think they’re fouling a lot, which is fine. They made a commitment, they have an identity.”
This is who the Nets seem to be with just a modicum of health; perhaps the Play-In Tournament is within reach.
Even if Killian Hayes is the first sub off the bench, which he was on Thursday night. The former #7 pick, recently rewarded with a 10-day contract, subbed in for D’Angelo Russell five minutes into the night...
Though he shot just 2-of-6 and 0-of-3 from deep, it wasn’t all bad for Hayes. He was blown by too easily a couple times on D, but also took a charge and blocked a shot in his 21 minutes his first NBA game since Detroit waived him a year ago.
Before the game, he told reporters, “My goal is to stay in the NBA, make a mark for myself. But I think my short term goals are, you know, just be a team player, show what I can do in these 10 days I have, and just keep going from there.”
To that end, Thursday night was a good start for the Frenchman.
But Hayes wasn’t Brooklyn’s most impressive ball-handler off the bench. That was undoubtedly Trendon Watford, who finished with 13/4/3 and a number of highlight plays in the game’s middle stages...
Cleveland picked it up in the third quarter, and flexed their more talented muscles. Darius Garland went assist-bucket-bucket for a personal 7-0 run to create separation, and Mitchell entered the game trying to both dunk on and break the ankles of every defender.
With the Nets on the brink of falling by the wayside, Watford willed them back to within two possessions as the fourth quarter started. There seemed to be a real chance Brooklyn notched their most improbable win yet.
Alas, the talent gap was too stark. Though the Nets stopped turning it over, it didn’t matter; they could not generate clean looks, nor make difficult ones. Fernández’s team shot 40/26/55 in the second half. Nic Claxton, for all his early excellence, shot just 4-of-10 in total, 0-of-4 from the line.
Day’Ron Sharpe worked his behind off, but a 3-of-10 performance from the floor wasn’t going to cut it. The smalls couldn’t make threes, but the bigs couldn’t make layups and the Cavaliers poured it on with a late, game-sealing 13-0 run...
Though Brooklyn’s faltering offense really killed them, Fernández didn’t want to discuss that postgame, but rather how the shots rimming out impacted their overall energy.
“The second-chance points in the second half was 14-2. So, that’s how you lose games, and then the fast breaks. Fast-break points was 15-2 just in that second half ... There’s some positives. Obviously, we responded the first half. It was not pretty, we were not shooting the ball well, but we were in the game, like you said, up against a very good team. I take it and just like, our focus was not all the way through the game, and that’s what we have to be better at.”
It certainly didn't help that veteran leader D’Angelo Russell left early in the third quarter — with Brooklyn up five — after appearing to sprain his ankle, three words Nets fans cannot escape this season.
“For him to go down, that’s tough. But, I think we got capable guys across the board, I don’t think it still should have gotten got out of hand, but sometimes it happens,” said Cam Johnson.
“We’ll reevaluate tomorrow,” was all Brooklyn’s head coach had to say about Russell’s injury postgame.
The NBA, as always, is about the Jimmys and Joes, more than the X’s and O’s. Brooklyn played hard, as they always do call it Jordi Ball but they did not have the horses. Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley would get their revenge on Claxton and Sharpe, shooting a combined 10-of-13 in the second half while grabbing 20 boards, dominating the paint.
At the very least, these Nets are a team you can be proud of, playing hard and never making excuses.
But that doesn’t exactly win basketball games, does it?
Final Score: Cleveland Cavaliers 110, Brooklyn Nets 97
Milestone Watch
- Thursday marked Watford’s season-high-tying fourth straight game reaching double-digits.
- Nic Claxton has blocked three shots, extending his season-best streak of games with multiple blocks. Claxton is up to a league-leading 19 blocks this month (2.7 bpg).
Tosan Evbuomwan sent to Long Island
For players on two-way contracts, there is a 50-game limit for which they can be active. However, that number is pro-rated to the point in the season when they were signed. For Tosan Evbuomwan, that number is just 11 more active games.
As a result, Evbuomwan was sent down to Long Island — where he's played just one game thus far — on Thursday.
Said Fernández: “We want to see him keep getting better and keep playing those minutes. If we need him here, for sure, we’re gonna bring him back and play those 11 games. But that’s the thought process right now, is, you know, being smart with those games. He’s a very important part of our club and what we’re trying to do.”
Kenny Atkinson on D’Angelo Russell, former team
The Brooklyn Nets have changed a lot since Kenny Atkinson last coached in the borough. However, one of his first success stories, D’Angelo Russell, has returned.
After his initial praise of Jordi Fernández (above), Atkinson was asked if he saw any similarities between this Nets team and the one he guided to the playoffs in 2018-19. He went right to D’Lo.
“They got D’Lo; so yeah, D’Lo is at the center of it. Yeah I think - and I don’t know if Jordi would say it - I always felt like those early Nets teams, the feedback we got was like ‘man, you guys are so competitive. You play so hard.’ And then we just heard that over and over. We were not perfect. We made a lot of mistakes. But that compete level on a daily basis, I think that’s where I’d make the connection. I see a lot of similarities there.”
Then, the front-runner for NBA Coach of the Year went deeper on his former point guard, specifically Russell’s leadership abilities: “It’s really interesting, because he is a natural leader. He has natural charisma. I used to say with the Nets, he’s got, like, star charisma. He really does. Whatever that DNA is, D’Lo — you can have your opinion about him — but D’Lo thinks he’s a star, know’s he’s a star, and I love that about him.”
“And then, as he started maturing more and getting comfortable here and started playing well, he started to lead me. He’d call me after games. Sometimes I’d call him, but most of the time he would call me [and say], ‘Hey, we should do this. I think we need to make a change in the starting lineup. Man, we’re practicing too much.’ Whatever it is, we had this line of communication. So leadership from that standpoint. And then in the locker room, he started gaining a ton of respect in there and started leading in there. I can’t imagine — he must be in the perfect place now, right? He’s kinda seen it all. He’s at that age where I assume he’s the alpha in that locker room. I’m just a big fan of the player, big fan of the leader, big fan of the person.”
That is some serious praise indeed.
Injury Update
Though there is no immediate update for D’Angelo Russell, we’ll learn more about the severity of his ankle sprain when Brooklyn’s next injury report is released.
However, Cam Thomas, who’s played just two games since November 27 with left hamstring trouble, spoke with YES Network’s Meghan Triplett on Thursday about his recovery process...
“Recovery is going great,” Thomas said. “My first five-on-five today, so that was good, get back on the court playing. But recovery has been great, and you know, can’t wait to get back on the court.”
Like his teammates and coaches, he sees an obvious path to impact upon returning: “We’ve been really great defensively ... I’m just here to help, you know, elevate the offense a little bit. So I can’t wait to do that. So I think if we mix the offense with the defense, we’ll be a really difficult team to beat.”
Next Up
Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25881539/2200068898.jpg "Boston Celtics v Philadelphia 76ers")
Brooklyn hits the road for two games on the East Coast, starting with the Philadelphia 76ers at Wells Fargo Arena. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET.
MAX. Source: https://www.netsdaily.com/2025/2/20...liers-110-97-donovan-mitchell-dangelo-russell
