Nets teenager Egor Dëmin’s homecoming to Utah was a victory.
The lottery pick – who played in-state at BYU – had the best night of his impressive rookie season, leading the Nets to a 109-99 win over the Jazz before a sellout crowd of 18,186 at Delta Center snapped a seven-game losing skid in the league.
It was the team’s first win of the season without Michael Porter Jr., after previously going 0-8 without their leading scorer.
But Dëmin filled the void with his first-ever double-double: 25 points and 10 rebounds – both career highs – plus four assists. He went 6-for-12 from deep — the first Nets rookie with six threes in multiple games. His 34th straight game with a 3-pointer marked an NBA rookie record.
Dëmin started alongside Nolan Traore and Danny Wolf, marking the first time the Nets started three rookies since December 18, 2021. Wolf had 14 points and five boards, Traore seven points and six assists.
Cam Thomas scored 21 off the bench, while Day’Ron Sharpe added 16 points and nine rebounds against undersized Utah.
Lauri Markkanen and Jusuf Nurkic were out for the Jazz, who have dropped nine of 10. But the Nets won’t feel sorry for him at all.
“It means a lot,” Dëmin said in a TV interview on the field. ‘It’s the first [time we won] the second game of a back-to-back. Winning the first game without Mike; he’s a big, big, big part of our team. But we must also be able to function without him. So that win means a lot, especially for me now that I’m back home, I can say that. It’s quite fun.
“It’s very special, especially to have some of these people who mean so much to me and to feel the BYU love from here. It’s just very special.”
Trailing 30-26, the Nets put together an extended 22-6 run that spanned the first and second quarters. Thomas scored 12 straight Nets points, and Nic Claxton’s bucket off a Jalen Wilson feed capped the run for a 46-36 lead.
Then it was Wolf who found Claxton to push the score to 52-38 with 4:52 left in the half.
The Nets allowed a 16-2 run that stretched into the break. Jazz rookie Ace Bailey – a lottery pick out of Rutgers – tied the knot at 54.
The second half was tooth and nail.
The score reached 83-all after another Bailey score to open the fourth, but the Nets went on an 8-0 run and never trailed again. Thomas found Wilson in the corner for a 3 and 91-83 lead.
A pair of late Dëmin 3s padded the cushion to double figures at 100-90.
The Nets (13-34) now sit fifth in the lottery race, one game behind Washington and one ahead of Utah for sixth place.
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