Brown, Brooklyn beat New York in Day 2 NBA Summer League meeting

Whether during the regular season or otherwise, it’s always fun beating the defending champions.

In this year’s Battle of New York, Brooklyn beat New York, 91-65, Friday, July 10 from the Thomas & Mack Center on Day 2 of the NBA Summer League. The contest also served as the Las Vegas debut for No. 6 overall pick Mikel Brown Jr.

“I think it was really impressive,” head coach Dutch Gaitley said. “I mean, it’s the second game and he had a minute restriction in the first game. Minutes increased a little bit and we had him in a different substitution pattern.”

The Nets punched home back-to-back thunderous dunks in the third quarter off steals while playing the passing lanes. The first of which came from center Chaney Johnson while the second was done by the aforementioned Brown.

That would be part of a 19-2 run that put Brooklyn up 22 points on the way to winning the third quarter, 30-9. The frame was capped by a buzzer-beating three by Brown.

“It was really about me finding my rhythm,” he said. “I really do think me finding my rhythm throughout the game kind of helped me.”

Brown added nine more points in the fourth quarter on his way to 20 points on 50% shooting to go along with three assists and two steals. As a team, the Nets went up by 32 points in that final 10 minutes as part of a second half that they won, 53-32.

“We went back in the first half and we knew we were making some mistakes defensively,” Brown said. “Letting hot guys get good looks and then offensively, we were actually playing well just shots weren’t falling. We knew at some point during the game they were going to fall because we were getting the right ones.”

Forward Egor Demin shared in the game-high 20 points coupled with seven rebounds. Through the first two quarters, he led all scorers with 15 points on 13 field goal attempts.

“I will say Egor has done an amazing job of incorporating [people],” Gaitley said. “He’s been the one coming to me saying, ‘Hey, let’s get [Brown] a play, let’s get Kel going.’”

Demin had it all going for him, even resulting in him making a behind the back pass that was bobbled and turned over by a teammate. In addition, he had a between the legs pass stolen.

Johnson added 11 points and nine rebounds while posting a game-high +35 plus/minus.

“I’m glad I’m not the only one that notices that,” Gaitley said. “He’s a beast. When we got Chaney and watched film on him, I was like, ‘This guy is an NBA player.’

“The best part about him is we’re playing him out of position. He’s a 6’7 center and he’s dominating the game. Just wait until we’re able to play and put him on the best perimeter [scorers] because we need him to guard the bigs.”