The Brooklyn Nets trailed 68-48 at halftime on Friday night.
They had just been victimized by one of **those** stretches from a very spry Kawhi Leonard, all-encompassing dominance that decided the game in the second quarter. The Nets actually won the first quarter, which looked and surely felt nice after getting 30-pieced by the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night.
In a very courteous gesture to the beat writers, Brooklyn wasted no time letting us know which direction the game was headed in the third quarter. Turnover, James Harden pull-up, turnover, Kawhi Leonard pull-up. Jordi Fernández timeout. The innocent promise of the offseason inches closer...
> Nets down 20 at halftime. Start the 3Q with two turnovers, and LAC is just messing around.Jordi calls a timeout.
>
> Michigan State game looks good tho [pic.twitter.com/26id9yGQgE](https://t.co/26id9yGQgE)
>
> — Lucas Kaplan (@LucasKaplan\_) [March 29, 2025](https://twitter.com/LucasKaplan_/status/1905787636066738603?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
It wasn’t as ugly as these two teams’ first matchup in Los Angeles, a 126-67 defeat that was the most lopsided in Nets history, but only in a literal sense. Brooklyn would lose this game — again, a game in which they had won the first quarter — by 32 points.
Harden and Leonard were in pickup-mode for the game’s second half, as two of the most talented players ever just let it eat. The ex-Net scored 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting, while Leonard dropped 31/6/2/4/2 on 10-of-14. Ivica Zubac shot 9-of-9, for good measure.
Some of you will be interested to know that Ben Simmons, who did not receive a ‘thank you’ graphic from Brooklyn on the video board and heard booing late in the game, missed all three of his shots. Some of you will not...
As for Brooklyn, their end-of-bench, end-of-season characters provided the most excitement. Gonzaga legend Drew Timme, making his NBA debut after signing his first NBA contract, posted an 11-and-10 double-double.
Two-way player Tyson Etienne entered in the fourth quarter, scoring his first eight career points as well, featured in a lineup alongside, Timme, Maxwell Lewis, Reece Beekman, and Tosan Evbuomwan. Even Dariq Whitehead, who scored five points, was too accomplished for such a stage.
So, not only did Timme debut on Friday night, but he was second on the Nets in minutes with 25. Tanking? Perhaps. But it’s not like any of the starters, led by Keon Johnson’s 13 points, deserved to play much more. The weight of expectations, or lack thereof, has finally set in at Barclays Center.
(Jalen Wilson played 28 minutes, either a worrying indicator of his status on the team, or a reward for playing hard on a lifeless evening.)
In sum, Brooklyn shot 37/30/77 on Friday night, quite different than the Clippers’ 55/51/89. Even Patty Mills got in the game for the visiting side, and he even caught a heater, hitting three 3-pointers in mega-garbage time.
With one minute left, some of the C-team Nets doubled Mills to get it out of his hands. Can’t let the old man embarrass you on the your home floor, right? Later in the possession, Mills got the ball back and was fouled on a 3-pointer. The aging Aussie scored 14 points in his seven minutes of action.
**Final Score: Los Angeles Clippers 132, Brooklyn Nets 100**