Nets show fight in rematch with Indy

Avenge brutal loss vs. Pacers despite playoff elimination

April 4, 2024 John Torenli, Sports Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Noah Clowney rose to the occasion and the Nets avenged their brutal loss to Indiana Wednesday night at Downtown's Barclays Center. AP Photo by Peter K. Afriyie

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The Brooklyn Nets were officially eliminated from playoff contention for the first time in six years Wednesday night.

That didn’t stop them from proving they could contend with the Indiana Pacers at Downtown’s Barclays Center.

Rookie Noah Clowney provided some hope for the future with career highs of 22 points and 10 rebounds and Cam Thomas led Brooklyn in scoring for the fifth straight game as the Nets rebounded from a dismal showing in Indiana two nights ago with a 115-111 victory.

The announced sellout crowd of 17,732 settled in for the opener of Brooklyn’s final homestand hoping to see the Nets (30-47) show some fight after suffering a 133-111 beatdown at the hands of the Pacers (43-34), who piled up 70 points in the paint and led by as many as 36 Monday.

Officially knocked out of a spot in the Eastern Conference’s play-in tournament due to Atlanta’s win over Detroit Wednesday, the Nets hung a big loss on Indiana, which slipped behind Miami for the coveted sixth spot in the race for playoff seeding.

Thomas poured in 27 points despite misfiring on eight of his 11 attempts from 3-point range, but it was the 19-year-old Clowney who made the strongest impression on the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush.

The first-round pick and second-youngest player in the league came off the bench to drain 7-of-9 shots, including 3-of-4 from beyond the arc. He also snatched five offensive boards and blocked a shot in only 17 minutes on the Barclays hardwood.

“I got to play with the same confidence I play with in the G (League) that I do here,” Clowney intimated. “I don’t want to start playing shy and then I am playing bad.”

He certainly wasn’t shy in crunch time.

Though Clowney put up 14 of his points in the second quarter, when Brooklyn put up 42 to pull within 62-61 at intermission, he was also a factor in the game’s waning moments.

Mikal Bridges gets a lift from his Nets teammates Wednesday as Brooklyn beat Indiana on a night they were eliminated from postseason contention. AP Photo by Peter K. Afriyie

With the Nets trailing by three with just over two minutes remaining in regulation, Clowney sank two clutch free throws after Dennis Schroder’s 3-pointer to give Brooklyn a 112-108 lead.

Tyrese Haliburton, who torched the Nets for 27 points in Indiana, responded with a long-range shot of his own. But Clowney’s fellow rookie, Jalen Wilson, calmly hit a pair from the charity stripe to settle matters with seven ticks left on the clock.

“That was just a poor defensive quarter,” Haliburton said of Brooklyn’s outburst prior to halftime. “I think it gave them confidence and that allowed them to kind of make their run.”

Paul Siakam scored 26 points and Haliburton finished with 24 for the Pacers, who had won three of their previous four contests.

“It was an uneven compete level for us tonight,“ Indiana coach Rick Carlisle told the Associated Press. “You know, the second quarter was our undoing and the second half (we) just left too much to chance,”

Mikal Bridges had 17 points, Nic Claxton amassed 14 points and 13 boards, Schroder piled up 12 points and 11 assists and Dorian Finney-Smith added 10 points as all five Nets starters finished in double figures in scoring.

The contributions up and down the bench, highlighted by Clowney’s best performance as a professional, didn’t keep Brooklyn’s playoff hopes alive.

But it did inspire Ollie to boast about his team’s toughness and resolve just 48 hours after openly questioning both.

“We’re trying to build championship character, we’re trying to build competitive character,” Ollie noted after his team averted a three-game season-series sweep against Indiana.

“And that’s just taking care of one another and competing no matter what the outcome is,” he added.

Fresh off a 50-point performance in Atlanta, Malachi Flynn and the league-worst Pistons will be at Barclays Center Saturday. AP Photo by Jason Allen

NOTHING BUT NET: The Nets will host league-worst Detroit here Saturday night hoping to atone for a 118-112 setback in the Motor City on March 7. Brooklyn swept a two-game set from the Pistons (13-63) from Dec. 23-26 when Detroit established the longest single-season losing streak at 27 games. The Pistons went on to make it 28 in a row in Boston a few nights later, but have gone 11-34 since. The Nets are 17-37 since opening the campaign with a 13-10 mark. Schroder had 31 points in the loss at Detroit last month. The Pistons will enter Barclays on a two-game skid, including Wednesday’s loss in Atlanta that spelled the end of Brooklyn’s faint postseason hopes. Malachi Flynn scored a career-high 50 points off the bench for Detroit, which will visit Memphis Friday night before arriving Downtown. “Right now, its tough because at the end of the day you want to win,” Flynn said. “But it does feel good to kind of take in the moment. I’m sure a couple of days from now, it will feel really good.”