Brooklyn Nets steamroll non-competitive Charlotte Hornets team in ambivalent win, 104-83

In the one game even the most ardent Nets supporters might have wanted them to lose, Charlotte put up no resistance.

Though the Brooklyn Nets ended their seven-game losing streak against a very depleted, and thus, absolutely awful Charlotte Hornets side on Wednesday night, it was not an easy experience.

The win itself was pretty easy, and we’ll get to that. Brooklyn, in an act of tangible disrespect from Vegas, was the underdog in a game where Charlotte started Vasilije Micić, Miles Bridges, Nick Smith Jr., Josh Okogie, and Taj Gibson.

Charlotte didn’t enter the 2024-25 solely focused on next year’s draft pick. The oft-injured LaMelo Ball did sprain his ankle on Monday, Grant Williams tore his ACL early in the year, Brandon Miller has been ruled out for the season, Cody Martin has a freaking sports hernia injury, and Tre Mann’s back injury has caused 30 absences for him in a contract year.

On Wednesday, Charlotte only really erred on the side of caution with the absent Mark Williams, who is averaging 21 and 12 over his last six appearances.

It was unfortunate, then, that Brooklyn’s long-term goals run so counter to getting a win on Monday.

I don’t think a tank and the race for better lottery odds should lead a game story often, particularly in January, but for the Nets organization and their fans, this one was too much to ignore. Here were the standings, pregame…

Perhaps Washington and Utah are lost causes. Oh well, New Orleans and Toronto, now far healthier than in the fall months, are winning games and have made up serious ground on the Nets in January.

That leaves a bad, and now, injured Charlotte team. And unfortunately, securing the third-best lottery odds are imperative for a tanking team such as the Nets. The top three teas all have identical odds of securing the #1 pick (14%) and any pick within the top three (52.1%), after which, the odds decrease.

Brooklyn, of course, will not change their fate within the 2024-25 season. It’s all about adding talent to this roster, hitting on a draft pick.

How fans choose to root for their team in seasons like this, well, there’s no “correct” way. Rooting for losses is practical, rooting for wins is noble, or even conditional. It’s always nice to beat the Knicks, which Brooklyn couldn’t; it’s always nice to win when you retire a jersey, but Brooklyn couldn’t.

But beating this Charlotte team and very possibly locking yourself out of top-3 odds in May, particularly when a Cooper Flagg-Dylan Harper-Kasparas Jakučionis trio has started to take shape at the top of the 2025 class? The juice may not be worth the squeeze.

Of course, Jordi Fernández and his players don’t care about that. Nic Claxton certainly didn’t, setting the tone with three blocks in the first quarter en route to 12/8/0/1/6…

“He was great,” said Fernández of his starting center. “His energy was great, his voice, his presence, like you said, he blocked some, but he also protected the rim, and you think about the changing shots, right? The shots they missed because he was there.”

Claxton may be having a down year, but let there be now no doubt: He is still better than 39-year-old Taj Gibson.

Said Clax of his performance: “I gotta get back to it. I haven’t really been blocking shots like that this year. Still trying to find my rhythm, so I gotta protect the rim. That’s my job. That’s what I get paid for.”

For all of the Nets’ recent misgivings in recent weeks, they haven’t played a game as ugly Charlotte did on Monday. Forget shooting 28.6% from three, the hosts only made 37.5% of their twos!

Still, Brooklyn did more than just show up to the arena. Their rotations at the rim were consistent and on-time, and a suddenly large forward group of Ziaire Williams, Tosan Evbuomwan, Ben Simmons, and Trendon Watford was always in the way.

Speaking of Simmons and Watford, those two were making triumphant returns. Simmons from five straight absences with an illness and back tightness (10/2/6), and Watford from 21 straight absences with a hamstring injury.

The 24-year-old didn’t look sluggish though, shooting 4-of-9 with zero turnovers en route to 9/4/2…

Said Watford: “I had a little stint there in the third where I ran off a few buckets and just got in the flow of the offense. But, you know, not trying to press, press anything in my first game back and let it come to me. So I think I did a good job of that.”

Somehow, he wasn’t one of Brooklyn’s six double-digit scorers, of which Keon Johnson led the way with 18.

The Nets built a 16-point lead in the first half, and it remained around there for the rest of night. At one point, Charlotte strung together a couple made jumpers to shift the energy slightly, but then Brooklyn responded with an even bigger punch, highlighted by a Tosan Evbuomwan (14/4/1) three on the fast-break.

See, Charlotte didn’t just miss shots, they also didn’t bring it. At all. And say what you will about the Nets and their relative lack of talent that can lead to disgusting shooting performances, as it did in their most recent losses to the Miami Heat and Sacramento Kings, but they always try.

Charlotte’s transition defense was non-existent, as Brooklyn ran to 21 fast-break points compared to, literally, just one for the Hornets. To nobody’s surprise, D’Angelo Russell (6/5/7) made the prettiest play of the night…

The Hornets did score 24 second-chance points, but when you miss that many shots, is it really that impressive?

Alright, that’s enough on the Hornets, who again, are suffering through real and major injuries. But on the night they really needed to put up a fight against the Nets, for the Nets’ own sake, they didn’t come close, and thus, Brooklyn notched their biggest win of the season, even as they shot just 31.3% from deep.

On nights like these, you may question the NBA’s product, and why teams must lose to achieve their long-term goals.

But the guys, at least for a moment, are smiling. And on Monday night, they deserved the win. That’s gotta be something, right?

Said Fernández: “You can be happy with what you’re doing, day-to-day and having good energy. But you know, them winning a game is the ultimate reward, and I’m happy for them, because they deserve it.”

“It felt a big weight off our shoulders,” Nic Claxton told YES Network’s Meghan Triplett in his on-court interview. “We got this one, just got to build off of it.”

Final Score: Brooklyn Nets 104, Charlotte Hornets 83

Milestone Watch

When you get team milestones too, you know it was a feel-good win.

• As mentioned, the 21-point margin of victory was a season-high for Brooklyn, and Charlotte’s 83 points were an opponent season-low.
• Charlotte’s 33.7% shooting from the field also represents an opponent season-low.
• Six blocks represents Nic Claxton’s season-high, and a mark he has now reached just five times in his career

Injury Report

Even with the returns of Simmons and Watford, there was still some bad news on the injury front. Day’Ron Sharpe left the game with hamstring tightness after playing (an effective) ten minutes, and there was no immediate update available.

“Yeah, no update. He He told me that he felt his hamstring, and obviously, we want to be cautious, because, as you know, we’re down bodies, and that’s the last thing we need, is to lose another one … we hope that it’s minor,” said Jordi Fernández.

Next Up

Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

The Brooklyn Nets now have a home-and-home with the Western Conference’s surprise three-seed. They’ll tip off against the Houston Rockets, down in Houston, on Saturday evening at 8:00 p.m. ET.