SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Nets coach Jordi Fernandez headed back to Sacramento to play the Kings and Mike Brown wasn’t just dealing with a mentor: he was dealing with family.

Brown didn’t take it easy on his protégé Sunday, and Fernandez wouldn’t have wanted that. He got his win over his former boss, a 108-103 come-from-behind victory before 16,750 at Golden1Center.

‘I just want to kick his ass. And then give him a hug. And I’m sure he feels the same way about me,” Brown laughed before the game.

“That’s great. I’ll take the hug, I won’t take the first part,” Fernandez said. “We will certainly try to do the same.”

It was a tough task, and a nail-biter. But the Nets built a 19-point lead, trailed in the fourth quarter and used a 15-4 run to take the lead for good.

Cam Thomas had a game-high 34 points and Brooklyn shot 19-for-39 from deep to improve to 7-10. And Fernandez secured his victory over his former boss.

Their bonds run deep. Fernandez met Brown in 2009, when Fernandez was a young development coach from Spain working at Impact Basketball in Las Vegas. Brown – then the Cavaliers’ coach – had his high school-age son, Elijah, train under Fernandez during the Summer League, and the Spaniard impressed him.

It was the start of a mentorship, with Fernandez serving multiple stints as Brown’s assistant — most recently from 2022 to 2024 in Sacramento.

‘Yes, he is a mentor, but he is more than that. He is like family to me. Without him I wouldn’t be in this position. He is the one who brought me here, and years later we were back together,” Fernandez said. “I’m in this position because of Coach Brown and the organization that put me in this position. So a really cool story.”

And Brown believed the position – charged with rebuilding the Nets – is the perfect position for Fernandez to succeed.

Everything Fernandez showed on Sunday only underlined that.

“He’s exactly the right guy for the job,” Brown said. “They are clearly thinking about a renovation, at least that’s what you hear from the outside. And so you need someone with a plan, with energy. And then with the right focus on relationships and things like that. Because when they go through that process, if that’s what they do, it can be a lot of ups and downs.”

“So you need a man who is steadfast, has good relationships with everyone and keeps his spirits up and all those other things. He makes them play really, really, really hard. They are doing good things on both sides of the ball. I can only imagine the success he will have, especially once they figure out which direction they might not want to go.”

After scoring 19 goals in Philadelphia on Friday, the Nets had just one in a flawless first quarter that saw them lead, 37-28.

Leading just 29-25 after De’Aaron Fox (31 points) hit a step-back jumper with 1:46 left in the first, the Nets went on a 19-7 run that spanned the quarters.

Ben Simmons had a chase block and then pushed the pace the other way to find Noah Clowney for a 3-pointer in the corner and a 54-35 cushion with 7:19 left in the half.

At halftime, the Nets’ buffers were reduced to eight.

It was still 82-75 before the Nets gave up a 13-3 run, trailing by three with 23.4 seconds left in the third on a Keegan Murray free throw.

Murray caused the Nets pain again in the fourth. Clowney was forced from the match with a left ankle injury after landing on Murray’s foot.

Clowney had to be helped with 18 points on 5-for-8 shooting from deep with 6:05 left.

But it came during the 15-4 run where the Nets turned the game around.

Trailing 94-90 with 9:14 to play, Brooklyn buckled and was executed, Shake Milton finding Jalen Wilson for a 3-pointer and a 105-98 lead.

“That’s the respect: you always want to beat your opponent, and I hope that’s what he wants to do, the same thing we will do, obviously with a lot of respect,” Fernandez said. “At some point I can hopefully give him a big hug after the game. But we are here to compete, to fight for 48 minutes, for every possession, no matter who is in it.”

It was a victorious hug from Fernandez.