Hornets Fall 114-104 to Nets as Michael Porter Jr. Takes Over Late

Michael Porter Jr. hit three 3-pointers in a span of 1:19 midway through the fourth quarter Wednesday night, and the Brooklyn Nets stretched an 89-87 lead to 99-91 on their way to a 114-104 win over the Charlotte Hornets at Barclays Center.

The loss was Charlotte’s fifth in a row. At 3-6, the Hornets have not won since Oct. 26 against the Washington Wizards, and they led this one 57-50 at halftime.

Day’Ron Sharpe assisted on all three of Porter’s 3-pointers. Charlotte called timeout two seconds after the last one, with 7:13 to play.

Porter finished with 26 points and 10 rebounds. He scored 13 in the fourth quarter on 4-of-5 shooting, including 3-of-4 from deep.

Julius Randle added 22 points and 4 assists. Mikel Brown Jr., the No. 6 pick in this year’s draft, scored 18 off the bench, and Nolan Traore had 16 points and 3 steals.

Brooklyn (2-6) picked up its second win of the season. The first came Sunday at Indiana.

Hornets coach Charles Lee said the loss still had plenty of good moments to build on.

“I thought they handled the physicality pretty well,” Lee said. “I think there was a couple stretches throughout the game where we were able to impose our will, and we’re playing with pace. They feel us defensively, they feel us offensively. We created some really good looks for each other. I thought that our screeners were a little bit more dynamic tonight. We were able to get a piece of the paint.”

“And then there was a couple stretches where we’re careless with the ball and lapses on defense,” Lee continued. “But overall, I thought the competitive spirit and the physicality of the group was there all night.”

Grayson Allen scored 16 points in the second quarter on 5-of-7 shooting, 4-of-5 from 3-point range. His 26-footer with 1:03 left in the half put Charlotte ahead 57-47, its largest lead of the night.

Allen reached halftime with 20 points on 6-of-8 shooting. He did not make a field goal after the break and finished with 22 points, 2 rebounds, and 4 assists.

Tidjane Salaün made two 3-pointers in that same quarter and another in the third. All 9 of his points came from deep, on 3-of-4 shooting in 10:01.

Charlotte acquired Allen from Phoenix in the offseason deal that sent Miles Bridges to the Suns. On Oct. 21, in the season opener in this building, Allen scored 21 off the bench in a 110-103 Hornets win.

The lead changed hands six times in the third quarter, which Brooklyn won 30-23. The Nets had not been in front since the second quarter until Danny Wolf’s 3-pointer at 7:33 made it 61-59.

Sion James stayed on the floor for all 12 minutes of the third and scored 7 of his 10 points in it, starting with an 8-foot hook on Charlotte’s second trip of the half. When Terance Mann fouled him with 2:10 left, he made both free throws for a 78-72 Hornets lead.

Brooklyn closed the period on an 8-2 run. Brown’s step-back 3 with 30.9 seconds left tied the score, and Charlotte’s 15th turnover came on the next trip, a Brandon Miller pass out of bounds.

Randle hit a 3 on Brooklyn’s first trip of the fourth quarter, and 20 seconds later Naz Reid answered from 26 feet. At 83-83, it was the last time the teams were even.

At 10:26, Mann stripped Moussa Diabaté, and Wolf finished the break with a 3 four seconds later. Brooklyn never trailed again. Diabaté was then called for an offensive foul, and on the Nets’ next trip, Brown stepped back from 26 feet for an 89-83 lead.

With 8:47 left, Royce O’Neale hit Ryan Kalkbrenner on a cut for a dunk, and Charlotte was down two.

Then Porter pulled up from 26 feet at 8:34, did it again from the same distance at 7:37, and made a third from 26 feet at 7:15.

Porter said he told his teammates at the start of the fourth quarter to be a team that learns from its mistakes, two nights after the Nets fell apart late in New York.

“No, that was — those were play calls that we went back to over and over again when we saw that they were having trouble guarding it,” Porter said. “And I just had to stay locked in. Obviously I struggled throughout the game with my shot. So I just told myself going into the fourth quarter, there’s been some times this season in close games, New York and then in Boston, where I felt like I wasn’t as involved or intentional or aggressive in the fourth quarter, and then in the overtime in Boston, that I needed to be. So I just made it a point to step my level of intensity up in the fourth quarter.”

The Nets first went up 12 on a pair of Wolf free throws with 3:12 left, 109-97. They were back up 12 at the 2:00 mark, after a Brooklyn challenge turned an out-of-bounds call into a foul on Diabaté and Porter made the second of his two free throws.

For James, the Hornets look right when the ball moves quickly and guys make quick decisions.

“We just got away from doing the things that worked well for us,” James said. “Our pace slowed down. We started having careless turnovers, and Porter Jr. got hot, and we didn’t make the adjustments in real time like we were supposed to.”

Charlotte shot 8-of-20 in the quarter. The Nets went 11-of-18.

Eleven of Reid’s 28 points came in the fourth, when he shot 5-of-7. He went 11-of-18 overall and added 9 rebounds and 2 assists. Reid came to Charlotte from Minnesota in the LaMelo Ball trade, and his first game as a Hornet was here on Oct. 21, when he had 20 points and 11 rebounds.

Brandon Miller scored 10 on 2-of-15 shooting, and James matched him off the bench. Brooklyn finished with 50 points in the paint to Charlotte’s 34 and shot 50.6% to the Hornets’ 40.3%, even with Charlotte going 30-of-36 at the line.

Kon Knueppel started Wednesday in his first game since a left hamstring strain kept him out of the first eight, after being listed as probable on Tuesday.

Randle fouled him on a 3-point try at 7:17, and Knueppel made all three free throws for his only points. He was out of the game 68 seconds later, with James checking in at 6:09, and the Hornets ruled him out for the night with soreness in his left leg.

Lee is waiting until the team is back in Charlotte to get a better read on it.

“No, I don’t have an update yet,” Lee said. “We’ll evaluate it more, obviously, when we get home from the road trip tonight.”

Grant Williams sat for the ninth time in nine games. His right hamstring strain was announced along with Knueppel’s on Sept. 25.

Coby White, who missed the first seven games with a left calf strain before he came back Monday, played 18:06 and scored 4 points on 2-of-9 shooting.

The Hornets play their next two at Spectrum Center, against the Boston Celtics on Friday and the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday. Both games tip off at 7 p.m. ET.