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The undermanned Nets have now played 31 games this season, and first-year coach Jordi Fernandez already has employed 16 different starting lineups.
Brooklyn impressively has pulled out just enough wins to hang around the play-in cutoff as the New Year approaches, but the Nets were not able to hold off Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs on Friday night, falling 96-87 at Barclays Center.
Starters Cam Johnson (hip contusion) and Ben Simmons (lower back maintenance) joined leading scorer Cam Thomas (hamstring) out of the Nets lineup.
After registering 42 points with 18 rebounds and four blocked shots in a Christmas loss to the Knicks at the Garden, Wembanyama netted 15 of his 19 points after halftime.
Former St. John’s standout Julian Champagnie added 18 off the bench for San Antonio (16-15).
Veteran guard Shake Milton made his first start of the season after scoring 14 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter of Thursday’s comeback win in Milwaukee.
He contributed 16 points and 10 assists, but the Nets slipped to 12-19 ahead of Sunday’s game in Orlando.
Nic Claxton had 11 points and 10 boards to hold his own in his matchup with Wembanyama, and Keon Johnson scored 15 of his team-high 25 in the fourth quarter for Brooklyn.
the ball as Tyrese Martin of the Brooklyn Nets is too
late to defend during the first half on Friday night at
Barclays Center. Robert Sabo for NY Post
Dorian Finney-Smith returned after missing three games with a calf issue, but he managed just two points in 27 minutes.
“CJ took a knee to the hip [in Milwaukee], so he’ll be out, and as we’ve done before, it’s a next-man-up mentality,” Fernandez said of Cam Johnson before the game. “All the shots that he was supposed to take, somebody else is going to have to take [them].”
Milton has been among those playing regularly and contributing amid a rash of injuries and especially since the trade of point guard Dennis Schroder earlier this month to the Warriors.
Thomas, the Nets’ leading scorer at 24.7 points per game, remains close to returning from a hamstring injury that has sidelined him since Nov. 25.
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Milton and Keon Johnson were deployed as the starting backcourt, with Simmons also sitting out on the tail end of back-to-back games for maintenance on his balky lower back.
Wembanyama threw down a dunk in the opening minute, but the 7-foot-3 French wunderkind was outscored by Claxton 6-2 in the opening session as the Nets grabbed a 22-11 lead through 12 minutes.
The Spurs missed 21 of 25 field-goal attempts in the period and only avoided being held to single digits when Keldon Johnson sank a midcourt shot at the buzzer.
It still marked the fewest points Brooklyn has allowed in any quarter this season and their lowest first-quarter total since also holding the Hornets to 11 in April 2021.
The Spurs posted the first nine points and opened with a 14-2 spurt, however, to take a one-point lead barely three minutes into the second quarter.
Champagnie pumped in 10, including three 3-pointers, in the period as the sides were knotted at 41 at intermission.
Wembanyama went inside-outside for a two-handed dunk and corner-3 for a one-point edge early in the third, and then he drained two more long-range buckets to help extend the Spurs’ advantage to 74-62 heading into the final quarter.
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