Porter, Randle Snap Nets' Skid With 98-90 Win in Indy
Brooklyn entered this game as the East's last winless team and left Indiana with a 98-90 victory that looks like a genuine turning point. Michael Porter Jr. (23 pts, 9 reb) and Julius Randle (20 pts, 6 ast, 2 stl) were the engines, but the story of the night was how Brooklyn built and defended a lead every time Indiana tried to claw back.
The Nets jumped out fast. Day'Ron Sharpe opened the scoring with a layup off a Porter assist, and by the time Porter had buried back-to-back threes from 24 and 25 feet — both fed by Nolan Traore — Brooklyn led 9-4 with over eight minutes left in the first. Indiana answered with a Jarace Walker three that briefly flipped the score to 9-10, but Randle responded immediately with a 26-footer of his own, then converted both free throws to push it back to 14-10. The Pacers kept scrapping — Pascal Siakam scored five points in the final 60 seconds of the first quarter, and Andrew Nembhard hit two free throws with 2.2 seconds left to cut it to 20-19 — but Brooklyn's cushion never fully evaporated.
The second quarter was a grind. Siakam opened it with a 13-footer to give Indiana its only lead of the half at 21-20, but Randle and Noah Clowney steadied Brooklyn right back. Traore's driving layup made it 30-25, and after Indiana trimmed it to 30-29, Porter hit a running layup and Moritz Wagner converted an and-one to push the halftime lead back to 37-32. Brooklyn's depth was showing — Traore finished with 16 points and 6 assists, and Sharpe posted 15 points and 13 rebounds, a double-double that looks like the kind of interior presence Indiana simply couldn't match.
The decisive blow came in the fourth quarter. With Indiana still within striking distance, Randle drained a 25-foot three pointer assisted by Sharpe at the 9:14 mark of the fourth — the win probability swung from 32% to 23% in Indiana's favor on that single shot, effectively sealing the outcome. Nembhard (23 pts) and Siakam (17 pts, 5 reb, 5 ast) gave Indiana everything they had, but Brooklyn's five-man contribution was too balanced to overcome. Ivica Zubac was listed as a DNP — coach's decision for Indiana, which appears to have limited their frontcourt options against Sharpe's physicality. Brooklyn's win comes on the heels of what had been a winless start to the season, and while it's one game, the Nets look like a team that finally figured out how to play together for 48 minutes.