It wasn’t enough that the Brooklyn Nets faced the Western Conference No. 1 Golden State Warriors on Monday night in the second game of a back-to-back. No, they needed an even bigger challenge the following night secure a fantastic, courageous victory for Head Coach Jordi Fernández in his return to Sacramento.

Half of Brooklyn’s rotation was unavailable against the Dubs, meaning they would have ten available players. That includes Tyrese Martin and Dariq Whitehead, the latter of whom boarded a flight from Toronto to the Bay Area early Monday morning to be available. (For a complete overview, see the injury report below.)

Further Brooklyn’s five (literally) the biggest players were unavailable, leaving them without a player who even resembled a center. But they were actually lucky to field ten players: the decisions during the match regarding both Dennis Schröder and Trendon Watford went their way.

Still, Fernández and the Nets were up for the challenge; Before the tip, the head coach said: “Those are games you never forget.”

“I just want our guys to be extremely confident on the court, play really, really hard, do the things we do, pressure the ball, shoot it when you’re open, play the pass, touch the paint. So all those things, whether we’re 8, 9, 10 or 11, we play the same way.

Lo and behold, Brooklyn played the same way it has all season. Just like in Sacramento, they drove, kicked and shot, making eight threes in the first quarter, the most in any period this season. Unsurprisingly, Golden State doubled Cam Thomas on almost every ball screen he used, and the Nets thrived…

Then things got even worse for Brooklyn, when Cam Johnson stepped on Draymond Green’s foot and rolled his ankle. Oddly enough, the coaching and medical staff let Johnson hold on for the final seven minutes of the second quarter, even as Johnson hopped up and down the court without taking a single shot in that stretch of play.

While that became a long-term concern for Brooklyn, a short-term concern also emerged in that second quarter: They couldn’t stop the Warriors.

Golden State not only scored 30 paint points in the first half, but also shot 12 of 27 from deep. Add in a single free throw and you’ve added up the entire point total. Steph Curry made his first three triples, yes, but it hurt more to see Golden State’s role players disappear, from Lindy Waters III to Moses Moody. These two were the team’s top scorers at halftime.

Things went from bad to worse early in the third quarter, despite Cam Thomas’ best scoring efforts…

Thomas would finish with 23/3/1 on 6-of-11 shooting with a ton of free throws, and honestly, the low assist total was a product of some bad luck, along with Golden State’s double-heavy defense.

Hey, every blowout needs a silver lining, right? Because when Brooklyn called a timeout at 86-68 with just over seven minutes left in the third, that would be all Thomas would accomplish. No one could blame the Nets for the circumstances they faced, and a competitive half of basketball, given those circumstances, amounts to a solid performance.

Before the match, Steve Kerr said Fernández “is a very good coach, you can see that in the way they play”, and that had not changed over the course of two and a half quarters.

Fernández then showed why he could be a very special coach. The Brooklyn Nets, who already defeated Cam Thomas and Cam Johnson, did the unthinkable. They came back to beat the best team in the West; an 18-point deficit at first glance, especially in an NBA saturated with the three-point shot, is nothing impossible to overcome, but these Nets, in this spot? Does a single adjective describe this kind of victory?

It started defensively. From 7:34 of the third to 1:54 of the fourth, almost 18 minutes of playing time, Brooklyn allowed just 24 points. The Warriors ran a perfect offense, shooting everything from the rim or from three, and making a ton of those attempts. Than. in the blink of an eye, the Nets made them look incompetent for an hour and a half.

But not just any Nets: Shake Milton, Keon Johnson, Jalen Wilson and Ziaire Williams got the job done…

“I think this was his best performance of the year,” said Fernández of Williams.

The offense never really went away for Brooklyn, but a few untimely turnovers and missed shots allowed Golden State to create the 86-68 cushion. That turned out to be a mirage; drive, kick, shoot, all the way to 20-of-45 from deep, with all nine Nets making at least one 3-pointer (Whitehead didn’t play).

Better yet, Brooklyn took advantage of every opportunity Golden State gave them, forcing thirteen goals that led to a whopping 26 points. The Nets showed us what their ideal pace really is, perhaps for the first time all season.

On the other hand, the Warriors turned Brooklyn over ten times, but scored just twelve fewer points on those chances in comparison.

All of these stats are team stats for a reason. We could list the individual efforts and still fill this article with Jalen Wilson playing 41 minutes on the second night of a back-to-back, or Trendon Watford making every clutch shot he made in the fourth, or Shake Milton’s season-high 13 points, or even Tyrese Martin, who showed well in the first half.

And yet, because Cam Thomas didn’t play after being fouled out midway through the third (Fernández attributed it to the flow of the game and the load Thomas has been carrying lately), much of the offensive burden fell on the shoulders of Dennis Schroeder.

He responded with 17 points and four assists… in the fourth quarter…

On a night when everyone was beaming, Dennis was the brightest star.

When supplies ran low, he went to get buckets. When not, he played within the flow of the offense, taking catch-and-shoot threes or driving through the lane. He even picked up Steph Curry full court every chance he could.

Fernández said: “He took control of the game, took charge and put everyone in the right place on both ends of the floor, and that’s that kind of leadership, like having a coach on the floor. And when those things happen, I just let him do his thing, and if he has a question for me, I’ll try to give him an answer.

On a night like Monday, it feels like the Nets are the NBA’s best — or at least most compelling — 8-10 team of all time. We already knew that their ‘tough’ and ‘competitive’ identity was not a cliché, but what is this? How many Nets teams have you root for that were capable of this win? Think about it.

Then think about whether you’ll remember this May victory while sweating over those damn ping pong balls. Do you regret the fight that Jordi Fernández’s team showed on a random Monday evening in San Francisco, six months earlier? Will you curse Wilson’s effort, the shots Schröder made, the bruises Williams gave himself on the Chase Center floor?

Don’t let the answer be yes, I beg you. On November 25, 2024, even with an 8-10 record and no hope of title contention, the Brooklyn Nets are a great team. Isn’t that something?

“We all just went to the bench and said, ‘We just have to get out, get out, fight and just have perseverance.’ It’s so much fun to go out and compete and do it all together.” –Jalen Wilson.

Final score: Brooklyn Nets 128, Golden State Warriors 120

Injury report

Okay, ready?

Let’s start with the most concerning absence: Nic Claxton. The $100 million man from Brooklyn did not appear on the initial injury report but was listed as questionable and then unavailable late Monday afternoon. Worse, it was “back pain” that kept him out; Sunday night marked Claxton’s return after a three-game absence following an epidural injection in his lower back.

When asked about the condition of his starting center in the pregame, Fernández gave an interesting answer: “I think in professional sports, especially in this league, a lot of these guys play with bumps and bruises. What we need is for them to believe they are ready to go. And if we feel like a man doesn’t have self-confidence, we let him or her make the decision, I think that’s fair. If you’re playing and you’re afraid of getting hurt, guess what? You’re going to get hurt. So we don’t want that for Nic or anyone in our group… So that’s where we are now with Nic, he felt it again, his awareness of his back.’

It certainly seems like something that won’t fade away anytime soon. Elsewhere:

• We saw Noah Clowney sprain his left ankle Sunday night in Sacramento; On Monday, Jordi Fernández said the skinny sophomore had an MRI for the ankle, but no results had come back yet.
• It was no surprise that Dorian Finney-Smith missed Monday’s game due to his own sprained left ankle, but rather a planned absence. DFS has been nursing the injury throughout November and Fernández said it is “TBD” for Brooklyn’s next game.
• Ben Simmons’ absence was also planned, as his current inability to play back-to-back is just plain old injury management.
• Day’Ron Sharpe and Bojan Bogdanović have no updates for the time being.
• Cam Johnson has been diagnosed with a right ankle sprain; no updates were available immediately after the game.

Milestone watch

• The Eastern Conference as a whole is 27-45 against the West this season. The Nets are 5-1. Even better, the Nets are 4-0 on the road against Western Conference teams for the first time in franchise history.
• Not only did Jalen Wilson record a season-high in minutes, but his 18 points marked a season-high.
• Ziaire Williams recorded 19 points and 10 boards, the first double-double of his Nets tenure and only the second of his career. His four assists were also a season high.

Next up

Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images

The Brooklyn Nets will see an old friend to cap off their four-game road trip against Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday night. (Worth noting: Durant is set to return Tuesday night after a two-week injury layoff, so he may not be available for the back-to-back Phoenix-Brooklyn game.) Tip-off is scheduled for 9:00 AM. pm ET.