With 9:29 left in Cleveland, the Nets trailed by 22 and the Cavaliers’ crowd was already thinking about the next game. Then Egor Demin got hot. He scored 15 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter, hit four threes, and helped Brooklyn pull within two before falling 125-121. At 0-2, that’s a moral victory and nothing more. But the box score hides something odd about how Demin did it, and it’s more interesting than the comeback itself.
Brooklyn’s 4th Quarter Surge Nearly Stole the Game
After Jaylon Tyson’s three made it 104-82, Demin hit three threes in 47 seconds as part of a 9-2 spurt that cut the deficit to 11. Cleveland still led by 17 with four minutes left, and then Brooklyn went on a 22-7 run, capped by Michael Porter Jr.’s fourth three of the night, which made it 123-121 with 8.1 seconds left. Demin and rookie Mikel Brown Jr. combined for five fourth-quarter threes, and at one point Brooklyn had it down to four with 26.4 seconds to go. Then Porter fouled out on the next possession, and Sam Merrill’s two free throws iced it. The Cavaliers, who had blown a 29-point lead in their opener at Philadelphia, went 11-of-15 at the line in the fourth and 29-of-38 for the game.
Egor Demin Three-Point Barrage Hid a Strange Number: Zero Two-Pointers
Here’s the detail. Demin finished 5-of-10 from the field and 5-of-10 from three. Do the math, and 22 points means five threes and seven made free throws. Every shot he took was a three. That fits last season, when he averaged 6.2 three-point attempts and just 2.8 shots inside the arc at the halfway point, and finished with 124 threes at 38.5 percent, fourth among rookies. It doesn’t fit the story that he’s now an attacking guard. After a Summer League where he averaged about 21 points and made the second All-Summer League team, the Nets would love to see him at the free-throw line more. On this night, he got to the line seven times and made all seven, and the rest was shooting from downtown.
A Rough Opener and a Blunt Review
Four nights earlier, in a 110-103 home loss to Charlotte, Demin scored four points on 2-of-10 shooting, 0-of-5 from three. His own review was blunt: “Not very good.” The Nets didn’t flinch. He played 27 minutes as a starter in the opener, and with Ben Saraf, Drake Powell and Danny Wolf all out of the rotation for a second straight game, Demin and Nolan Traore are the only members of Brooklyn’s 2025 first-round class getting minutes. Coach Jordi Fernandez said he sees “a lot of threats” when Brown and Demin are out there together. It’s the kind of trust a player earns by shooting through a bad night.
What a Comeback Like This Is Worth
Porter had 28 points and nine rebounds and Julius Randle added 23, so Brooklyn’s stars did their work. The question is whether the kids are growing into the same job. Demin has already shown he can bury threes when the game is lost. The next step is doing it when the game is still close, and without playing the same one-note role. A 22-point hole becoming a two-point game is fun. A 20-year-old who can only shoot threes is a limit. I’d bet on the shooter growing, but we need to see the evidence first.
Egor Demin Three-Point Barrage Nearly Rescues Brooklyn