Michael Porter Jr. from Brooklyn returned from illness just in time to face the team that traded him this summer. And he made that reunion a winning one.
Porter led the Nets to a 127-115 victory over the Nuggets in front of a sellout crowd of 17,548 at Barclays Center on Sunday.
It snapped a three-game skid and was especially kind to Porter, who won the title with the Nuggets in 2023 but was dumped on his salary by Denver last summer.
“I was excited about that first game against them, really since I got traded and how that all went down. I was definitely looking forward to playing against those guys,” Porter said. “So it’s been circled on my calendar for a minute. I probably felt more nervous about this one than a lot of other games. So it was fun.”
The Nets (11-22) got on the glass and outscored Denver 44-33. That created a balanced attack, with six players collecting at least thirteen points on the season. But it was Porter who led the way with 27 points, 11 rebounds and five assists.
Although he was a starter on Denver’s 2023 title team, Porter took a backseat in the two-man matchup between Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. The Nets dealt Cam Johnson for Porter and Denver’s 2032 first-round pick, a trade that looks like a steal from Brooklyn.
“He has a lot of freedom here. This trade was good for everyone. He won a championship with us. He’s one of the main reasons we did it,” Nuggets coach David Adelman said. “Any time you win the whole thing, the role was fitting. Michael, we know how talented he is.”
“Mike has this ability, he always has, but for us he sacrificed himself… Michael, I thought we used him in the right way. I’m sure he would completely disagree with me, and that’s okay, but we won a lot of games doing it that way. It’s cool to see him have a little more freedom here under Jordi. [Fernández].”
Adelman was a Nuggets assistant alongside Fernández, so he knows both the Nets star and their coach. He tried to take Porter with him on Sunday, chasing him into ball screens and bringing up Denver’s big men to catch the ball out of his hands.
None of it worked.
That’s how dangerous Porter has become, the only player in the East averaging 25 points and seven boards. The Nets are winless without him (0-6), but have won eight of their last eleven with him.
“I feel the difference when a coach really believes in me and when he questions the shots you make,” Porter said. “Jordi and this entire Nets organization did a great job with that, along with me and the entire team.”
With both Jokic and Johnson out due to knee injuries, Murray scored 27 points with 16 assists, while Tim Hardaway Jr. 26 scored.
But the Nets had enough to overcome that, with Porter’s production aided by Noah Clowney (20 points) and Day’Ron Sharpe. The latter filled in admirably for Nic Claxton with 17 points, six boards, four assists and three steals.
“When I came in, I told everyone we were locked in,” Sharpe said. “We just wanted to come together as a team to help get the Dub [Porter].”
Brooklyn clung to a 63-56 lead after Murray fed Peyton Watson 1:51 into the second half. But they went on a 21-10 run over the next five minutes, including the last seven in a row, to seize control.
The Nets hit eight of nine shots in the blitz, including all four from deep. Egor Dëmin had five points and two assists in the series, including the final dagger of a Porter pass, making it 84-66 with 5:10 left in the third.
The lead never dropped below double digits as the Nets saw the game behind Porter.
“Jamal said before tip-off, ‘It’s so weird going against you instead of being with you.’ Those are my brothers,” Porter said. “I was with those guys more every day than I was with my family. We won the championship together… Competing against each other instead of with each other is definitely a different experience, but it’s the nature of the sport.”
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