‘Experienced’ Warriors end Nets’ win streak

Egor Dёmin enjoyed the best 3-point shooting night of his rookie season Monday night in Downtown Brooklyn.

Steph Curry, a 17-year NBA veteran with four championship rings and a Finals Most Valuable Player award, made sure the 19-year-old Russian went home without a victory.

Curry poured in 27 points, including a quintet of 3-balls, as the Golden State Warriors ended the Nets’ season-high three-game winning streak with a 120-107 triumph before a sellout crowd of 18,163 at Barclays Center.

“It was a good experience for the group, especially the young guys to have the experience to play against this type of team,” Brooklyn coach Jordi Fernández noted after watching Curry lead Golden State to its fourth win in five contests.

“You know, how different they are and how experienced they are,” he added.

The Nets (10-20) boast the youngest roster in the NBA and Dёmin, the eight overall pick in this year’s Draft, has been at the forefront of this Brooklyn rebuild.

The 6-foot-8 Moscow native outdid Curry from beyond the arc, scoring 23 points while burying half of his 14 3s in a game that featured 13 lead changes and eight ties before intermission.

“(A) great aggressive shot every time that he takes a shot, I think it’s going in, and that’s a good feeling,” said Fernández.

Though they trailed by two at the half and four entering the final 12 minutes, the Nets looked poised to take the battle-tested Warriors down to the buzzer.

However, Curry and his teammates had other ideas.

The 11-time All-Star and two-time NBA MVP sank a 25-footer early in the fourth quarter before adding a conventional three-point play off a 16-foot floater that saw him draw contact from Nic Claxton to give Golden State a 110-103 advantage with 2:13 left.

The 19-year-old Dёmin quickly answered with a 25-footer, but the Warriors reeled off the next six points, beginning with a pair of free throws from Draymond Green, to put Brooklyn away.

“I thought that frustration at times or whatever the case may be, we dropped down our shoulders too much, and we just got to be better,” Fernández pointed out after the Nets were outscored 31-22 in the fourth quarter.

Jimmy Butler added 21 points for the Warriors, who climbed back above .500 while thwarting Brooklyn’s first four-game winning streak since a 12-game run from Dec. 7, 2022-Jan. 2, 2023, when Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving played at Barclays.

Michael Porter Jr. continued his All-Star worthy campaign for the Nets with 27 points on 10-of-18 shooting to go with nine rebounds, five assists and three steals. He matched Curry with five 3s.

In his second game back from a hamstring injury that cost him nearly six weeks, Cam Thomas had 13 points off the bench in 19 minutes after putting up 30 points in Minnesota on Saturday night.

Nic Claxton chipped in 15 points and nine boards and Noah Clowney added 11 points for Brooklyn, which got outrebounded 40-24 and conceded 24 points off turnovers.

The more grizzled Warriors knew just how to take advantage of the Nets’ inexperience, and will try to do so again when the teams square off in San Francisco on March 25.

Before then, however, Brooklyn will seek its first win of 2026 on Thursday against visiting Houston.

Fernández’s unit shook off a 3-16 start to the season by going 7-4 in December behind a tenacious defense, Porter’s unrelenting leadership and the NBA’s ultimate youth movement.

None of that matters to the second-year coach eager to see his team get “one percent better” every time it hits the hardwood.

“It was not a group that showed multiple efforts, and that’s why there was the worst defensive game in the month of December,” Fernández lamented.

NOTHING BUT NET: Brooklyn rookie Nolan Traoré continued his recent surge after spending most of the early part of the year in the G-League. The 19-year-old native of France scored a career-high nine points on three 3-pointers to go with a blocked shot and three turnovers. … The Nets are 4-3 at Barclays since opening the year with a franchise-worst nine-game home losing streak. … After hosting the Rockets on New Year’s Day, the Nets will take a short trip to our nation’s capital on Friday before opening a three-game homestand vs. Denver on Sunday afternoon.