With their victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on November 4th, the Brooklyn Nets became the first NBA team this season to defeat an opponent in a row. Two weeks into the season, Jordi Fernández’s team had secured two victories over the easternmost Western Conference team and would not see them again for another year.

That is, until group play in the Emirates NBA Cup was decided and one of the two games Brooklyn won on their schedule after that was Friday night against the Grizzlies. Bad luck.

Since Brooklyn’s second win over Memphis, the Grizzlies have found their way. An injury to rookie center Zach Edey didn’t affect them as much as the return and continued health of their three best players: Ja Morant, Desmond Bane and Jaren Jackson Jr. Under the leadership of those three and coach Taylor Jenkins, Memphis has adopted a different style every other season in franchise history.

They were the best transition offense in the league, and most teams don’t have the talent to keep up with a healthy Memphis squad in a 48-minute Athletics game. Nets included. As feisty as they have been this season — and as much as a fast-paced game may help their anemic transition offense — Brooklyn would need to bring the physicality and make some stops.

They didn’t do that.

They kept pace with Memphis by shooting 7 of 15 from three in the first quarter, but Memphis already had 10 points in transition by that point and got off to a start that gave them momentum the rest of the night. Brooklyn’s offense was stagnant in the second quarter and the Grizz went into the locker room with a 13-point lead.

Still, it was a fantastically entertaining game for 24 minutes. Even Ben Simmons and the bench were having fun as their team outplayed the starters early on and kept the visitors within striking distance…

Unfortunately, the high pace of the game favored the Grizz. Not only did their talent shine in a shootout, but the Nets continued to show it Battle in transition. According to Cleaning the Glass, they entered Friday as the least effective team at pushing the pace and didn’t do much to change that in Memphis…

Dorian Finney-Smith led Brooklyn in first-half scoring and finished with 19 points on five three-pointers. That kept him hot, and even though Brooklyn’s score was even, he was no match for Memphis star Santi Aldama.

Although Ja Morant dominated en route to an 18/5/6 half, his most notable play came after the buzzer in the second quarter, when he faced Jordi Fernández after capping the half with a basket…

But these Nets can’t be fooled, no matter how diverse the talent is. They opened the third quarter with an 8-0 run and cut the deficit to 74-72 at halftime.

Unfortunately, that was the highlight of their comeback attempt. Memphis’ three stars and Santi Aldama all scored more than 20 points, and Aldama in particular threw some ridiculous shots in the second half. Brooklyn occasionally showed some fight in their defense…

…but all too often their scope was porous. Morant & Co. easily broke through the first line and got the Nets into rotation, and on the rare occasions when they failed to do so, the Grizzlies came out of the game on the fast break.

Finney-Smith said: “We had live ball losses and they converted. They are a fast team and scored points on all marks. And coach, you know, he told us what they were going to do, but as a team we were able to execute the game plan better. So they like to play fast, they put in the work and that’s exactly what they did.”

In fact, Memphis scored a whopping 70 points. Transition, half court, whatever. Aside from a five-minute stretch of pride in the third quarter, Brooklyn was overwhelmed in Memphis.

Nic Claxton tried to make up for the disparity, but couldn’t repeat his great game against Milwaukee. He scored eight points on 4-of-11 shooting; Jaren Jackson Jr. stripped him on his first two drives of the game, and that set the tone for the evening.

Due to Claxton’s ineffectiveness, all-around poor defense and a hot Grizzlies team that shot 47% from deep, the Nets didn’t have the margin for error to commit 18 turnovers. But they did, and Memphis was able to run and hide in the fourth quarter, even though the Nets had kept it at bay for the first three quarters.

However, the fourth quarter was marked by even more extracurricular activities. Once again, Morant taunted the Nets’ bench, but Brooklyn didn’t have time to respond with their play, so they responded with words. Dennis Schröder approached head coach Taylor Jenkins to return the favor and it quickly became a technical feast…

But DFS said it best after the game: “If we don’t want him to bark, we have to go out and fight.” You know, we can’t fight with just our words. As the coach says, we have to go out and beat them.”

Ultimately, the Nets didn’t do that, and that’s why they can’t enjoy putting Morant and the Grizzlies in their place on Friday night.

Although Fernández said Morant’s behavior was “disrespectful” and “not part of the game,” Brooklyn’s head coach was largely focused on his own team.

“We simply didn’t deserve a better result. Back to defense: You give up 135 points, you don’t deserve to win, that’s for sure.

Final score: Memphis Grizzlies 135, Brooklyn Nets 119

Injury report

Trendon Watford didn’t play on Friday, and although it didn’t initially appear to be injury-related, Fernández explained after the game that Watford wasn’t “loose” enough to play and that he “didn’t want to risk it.”

However, the head coach then said that it was partly a rotation decision, as Noah Clowney was a healthy substitute in the last game, but had taken Watford’s place in the rotation today. With all of Brooklyn’s major teams now healthy, it looks like Jordi Fernández will have to make some tough decisions each game, although we’ll see if Watford’s play shows up in the next injury report.

But a Net that is injured? “Jacky” Cui Yongxi, the two-way guard from China who tore his ACL in Long Island’s last game, as our Scott Mitchell covered. Before Brooklyn’s contest against Memphis, Fernández had a few words for his injured rookie…

“He’s a guy who brings positive energy every day. A smile on his face, he just brings happiness. Ready to work, and every group needs that positive energy and work ethic.”

In a press release, the Brooklyn Nets said they expect Cui to make a full recovery next season.

Milestone clock

• Dorian Finney-Smith scored his season-high 19 points tonight. All 19 of his points came from 3-point range (5 of 8) and the free throw line (4 of 5).

I sit down with Cam Johnson

Earlier Friday afternoon, the Brooklyn Nets posted my preseason meeting with Cam Johnson on their social media channels. We broke down his 2023-24 film for six minutes, focusing on the intricacies of being a great NBA 3-point shooter, from mentality to footwork to court awareness.

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Photo by David Liam Kyle/NBAE via Getty Images

The other game the Brooklyn Nets added to their schedule after the NBA Cup game isn’t much simpler. They will come home to take on the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday night. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET.