• Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Friday night, the Brooklyn Nets played host to the Orlando Magic. Brooklyn was seeking their first win of the season, while Orlando hoped to make it two straight wins. Both teams are young, and still searching for that team chemistry. The one thing that is for certain, is that the Nets and Magic are “blue collar”. Both teams gave the fans at the Barclays Center, an exciting back-and forth game that went down to the final seconds. Through 11 ties and 11 lead changes, the Nets pulled out a 126-121 win over Orlando.

Here are three of the biggest takeaways from Brooklyn’s first win of the season:

Bench Production 

(Photo Credit: Barry Holmes/PureSportsNY) Coach Atkinson spoke about Dinwiddie's impressive play Friday night.
(Photo Credit: Barry Holmes/PureSportsNY) Coach Atkinson spoke about Dinwiddie’s impressive play Friday night.
  • Brooklyn got an astounding 64 points off of their bench Friday night. Trevor Booker became the first Net in history, to record double doubles off the bench in the first two games. Booker led the bench charge with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Spencer Dinwiddie had a great game, adding 16 points and five assists. Coach Kenny Atkinson spoke in his press conference, saying that Dinwiddie has earned more playing time after this performance. Bench scoring is a thorn in many teams side in the NBA, however Brooklyn showed Friday that their bench could become its strength.

Owning the Paint

  • The Nets exuded some of that “Brooklyn Grit”, by completely dominating the Magic in the interior. Brooklyn out-rebounded the Magic 57-45, which was a major reason the Nets came out on top. Outside of Nikola Vucevic (41 points, 11 rebounds) and Evan Fournier (22 points, nine rebounds), no one on the Magic was able to make a paint presence. As a team, the Nets out-scored Orlando 60-38 on points in the paint. This was huge, considering Brooklyn (9-27 3PT) didn’t shoot well from downtown.

New Look Nets

(Photo Credit: Barry Holmes/PureSportsNY) Carroll inbounding the ball Friday night.
(Photo Credit: Barry Holmes/PureSportsNY) Carroll inbounding the ball Friday night.
  • A couple of the Brooklyn newcomers, had really strong performances at the Barclays. D’Angelo Russell showed his relentless scoring mentality Friday night. Russell had a couple highlight finishes, as he tallied 17 points, six assists, and three steals. The fans in Brooklyn have really seemed to embrace Russell’s play style. DeMarre Carroll added 17 points and eight rebounds for the starters. Carrroll showcased his clutch three point shooting, and defensive prowess. These two new additions, are going to need to continue to have performances like this to give Brooklyn a chance to win a lot more games.

Barry Holmes is a Senior Writer for PureSportsNY.com. Follow him on Twitter @BHO732

(Featured Photo Credit: Barry Holmes/PureSportsNY)

By Barry Holmes

Graduate of Millersville University, with a BS in Communications focused in Broadcast. Senior Writer & Social Media Manager for PureSportsNY.

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