Michael Porter Jr. scored 23 points on Sunday to help the Brooklyn Nets secure their elusive first win with a 98-90 victory over the Indiana Pacers in Indianapolis.
Julius Randle added 20 points and Nolan Traore scored 16 for Brooklyn. Day’Ron Sharpe collected 15 points and 13 rebounds and Moritz Wagner chipped in 14 points off the bench for the Nets, who led the entire second half.
Andrew Nembhard paced Indiana with 23 points, followed by Pascal Siakam’s 17 and Quenton Jackson’s 12. Aaron Nesmith and Kelly Oubre Jr. had 11 apiece for the Pacers, who dropped their fourth straight game.
Holding a three-point halftime advantage, Brooklyn began the second half with nine straight points to push the lead to 52-40. Porter converted a four-point play and Traore made a 3-pointer and floater to account for the spurt.
After Indiana narrowed the deficit to four, Traore and Randle buried back-to-back treys and Noah Clowney dunked to make it 68-56 with 3:07 left in the third. The Nets led 71-62 entering the fourth.
Nembhard scored seven points during the Pacers’ 10-4 run in the opening minutes of the final quarter, which cut Brooklyn’s lead to 75-72. That was the last time Indiana would be within a possession.
Randle’s stepback trey with 4:44 left pushed the lead to 10. Nembhard’s fourth triple cut trimmed the deficit to seven at the 2:24 mark, but neither team would make another field goal the rest of the game.
Porter made two first-quarter 3-pointers to help the Nets take a 20-19 lead into the second.
Wagner, who was a perfect 4-for-4 from the field in the first half, made a layup to give the Nets a 41-35 lead with 1:31 left in the first half.
Siakam’s layup and Jarace Walker’s 3-pointer pulled the Pacers within a point before Porter’s layup beat the first-half buzzer to give Brooklyn a 43-40 edge at the break.
Porter and Siakam scored 13 points apiece in a first half that saw the teams combine for 17 turnovers.
