Friday was one of the rare nights where the Nets had at least four of their record five first-round picks healthy and available.
It resulted in a banner evening for their youngsters.
Egor Dëmin had a career night with 23 points, nine rebounds and five assists in 30:29, shooting 8 of 18 overall and 5 of 14 from deep.
The scoring and rebounding marked career highs.
His five three-pointers were tied for third-most by a Nets rookie, one outside the record shared by Kerry Kittles (Feb. 17, 1997) and Bojan Bogdanovic (April 10, 2015).
The Russian teenager again showed a tendency to become stronger deeper in games. After a scoreless first half, he had 15 points in the fourth quarter, hitting 3 of 6 from behind the arc.
“I think we just really had to flip the switch and find a way,” Dëmin said after the Nets’ 115-103 loss to the 76ers in the NBA Cup game. “And for me, this was the moment where I felt better. And I found that extra energy within myself. And then I start to feel it a little bit better.”
Danny Wolf saw his first extended NBA action.
After being the only player in the G League to average 20 points and 10 rebounds, the big man was called up from Long Island to fill in for the injured Michael Porter Jr.
“Great. It’s always good to get an opportunity,” Wolf said. “They say you have to be ready, and I do my best to do that. And it felt great to go out there and get an opportunity and try to do what I could to help the team win. Obviously we came up short, and that’s what matters.” [We’ve] got another chance [Saturday] night in Milwaukee.”
Wolf had five points and five rebounds in 12:46 off the bench.
He finished plus-6, the only Net with a positive plus-minus on Friday.
“I thought he looked super confident, and I really liked the way he came onto the pitch with, like I said, just really confident, like he’d been there before,” Dëmin said of Wolf. “He’s been playing basketball for a while, he’s been in college for a few years. So he knows what it’s like. And I thought he was ready. And he’s definitely had some impact.”
Nic Claxton had 12 points with six rebounds and one block.
The center is on a streak of 14 straight games with a block, the longest streak in the NBA this season and the second-longest streak of his career, behind just his 17 straight games in 2022-2023.
Ziaire Williams, who recorded a DNP in the last game, started at small forward with Porter out. He had 10 points and four rebounds.
The Nets said on Nov. 7 that Cam Thomas’ hamstring injury would be reevaluated in three to four weeks, with Friday’s deadline being three weeks.
“Right now it’s three and we said three against four. It’s not yet four, so there’s no update,” coach Jordi Fernández said.
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