Brooklyn Nets Lose Game One of NBA Restart Against Magic

The NBA is back! The Brooklyn Nets played their first of eight regular-season games in Orlando on Friday afternoon, and it went as expected.

With six key players opting-out of the NBA Restart in Orlando, the Brooklyn Nets were put in a difficult position to hold their spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Without Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Spencer Dinwiddie, DeAndre Jordan, Wilson Chandler, and Nic Claxton, it’s going to be tough for the Nets to stay four games ahead of the Wizards and make the playoffs without a play-in tournament.

We saw just how difficult it would be on Friday afternoon as they took on the Orlando Magic who entered the game as the eighth seed in the East.

Due to six of their players opting out of Orlando, the Nets’ starting five looked like this:

• PG: Chris Chiozza
• SG: Caris LeVert
• SF: Lance Thomas
• SF: Joe Harris
• C: Jarrett Allen

This was Chris Chiozza’s first start of his two-year NBA career, and it didn’t go great, but it wasn’t just him. Chiozza played 17 minutes and finished with only two points, one rebound, and three assists while shooting 1-6 from the field.

Not great, but the Nets have to work with what they’ve got and that’s what they tried to do on Friday. One player the Nets signed for Orlando was former University of Alabama center, Donta Hall who played well in his first game with Brooklyn.

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Hall finished with eight points, three rebounds and a block, and held a +/- of +18, which is incredible. Hall went undrafted and signed with the Detroit Pistons where he played only four games on a 10-day contract.

If Hall can continue to improve and help the Nets that much while he’s on the floor, Brooklyn might’ve found a diamond in the rough who could help the Nets bully opponents down low with their trio that could include Hall, Jarrett Allen, and DeAndre Jordan in the future.

Overall, the Nets had a poor performance, being down 30 points at one point in the game, but managed to rally a bit towards the end, losing by only 10 with a final score of 128-118.

With that, the Nets fell to the eighth spot in the East, only 5.5 games ahead of the ninth seed Wizards. Brooklyn’s next game will be on Sunday, August 2nd against the Wizards.