Brooklyn’s Michael Porter Jr. returned from illness just in time to face the team that traded him over the summer. And he made that reunion a winning one.
Porter led the Nets to a 127-115 victory over the Nuggets before a sellout crowd of 17,548 at Barclays Center on Sunday. It snapped a three-game skid, and was some sweet payback for the veteran forward, who was salary dumped by Denver.
The Nets (11-22) had a season-high six players muster at least 13 points as they shot 50.6 percent and 14-for-33 from deep. But it was Porter who led the way with an efficient game-high-tying 27 points, 11 rebounds and five assists.
“If I would be in his shoes, I would be very excited to play this game,” Jordi Fernández said beforehand of Porter, whom he spent four seasons with as a Denver assistant. “I have no doubt in my mind that he’s going to go out there and perform on both ends. So it’s an exciting, exciting day for all of us, especially for him.”
A starter on the Nuggets team that won the 2023 title, Porter nevertheless took a backseat to the two-man game of Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. The Nets dealt Cam Johnson for Porter and Denver’s unprotected 2032 first-round pick, a swap that was initially panned but is looking more and more like a Brooklyn steal.
Entering Sunday, Porter was the only qualified player in the East averaging at least 25 points and seven rebounds, and one of five in the entire league, joining Jokic, Luka Doncic, Lauri Markkanen and Deni Avdija. More to the point, the Nets are winless without him (0-6), but 11-16 with him — winning eight of his last 11.
With Jokic sidelined by a hyperextended left knee, Murray poured in 27 points and 16 assists, while Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 26.
The Nets had more than enough to overcome that behind Porter and Noah Clowney (20 points).
Brooklyn was clinging to a tenuous 63-56 lead after Murray found Peyton Watson underneath 1:51 into the second half. But they ripped off an extended 21-10 run over the next five minutes, including the final seven unanswered points to seize control of the game. They never gave the lead back.
The Nets hit eight of nine shots in the blitz, including all four from 3-point range. Egor Dëmin had five points and two assists in the game-deciding run, including the final dagger off a Porter feed to make it 84-66 with 5:10 left in the third.
Brooklyn built the lead to 19 and never let it get below double digits, seeing the game out behind Porter.
“He’s got a lot of freedom here. This trade was good for everybody. He won a championship with us. He’s one of the main reasons we did it,” said Nuggets coach David Adelman, who was an assistant alongside Fernández. “Any time you win the whole thing, the role was appropriate. Michael, we know how talented he is.
“Mike has this ability, he always has, but for us, he sacrificed … Our two-man game has been successful, and him in the corner with Aaron Gordon in the dunker spot, was quite a thing. Michael, I thought we used him in the right way. I’m sure he’d disagree with me completely, which is OK, but we won a lot of games doing it that way. It’s cool to see him have some more freedom here under Jordi.”
