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The Brooklyn Nets are still searching for their first win of the 2026-27 season, and they’ll have to find it on tired legs.

Brooklyn nearly erased a 22-point deficit in Cleveland on Saturday, outscoring the Cavaliers 41-29 in the fourth quarter before falling 125-121. The Nets return to Barclays Center on Sunday to face the Indiana Pacers in the second game of a back-to-back.

Meanwhile, sixth-overall pick Mikel Brown Jr. won’t be active for this one. He’s already on a minutes restriction and it looks like the Nets will keep him out of second night of back-to-backs for the foreseeable future. He rolled his ankle in the preseason.

But is there something else we should be keeping an eye on? In today’s injury report, the Nets listed Mikel Brown Jr. out with “Back, Injury Management.” He missed time during training camp due to a rolled ankle, but this is the first we’ve heard anything related to his back. Brown Jr. missed 12 games including the NCAA tournament last season in Louisville. Should we be worried?

Indiana arrives in Brooklyn coming off their own 16-point loss to the Dallas Mavericks.

Game Info & How to Watch

• Matchup: Brooklyn Nets (0-2) vs. Indiana Pacers (1-1)
• Time: 6:00 PM ET
• Location: Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York
• TV/Streaming: YES Network and DAZN

Nets-Pacers Injury Report

Brooklyn Nets

• Mikel Brown Jr. — OUT
• Tyler Bilodeau — OUT

Indiana Pacers

• T.J. McConnell – OUT
• Johnny Furphy – OUT
• Ben Sheppard – OUT
• Braden Smith – DOUBTFUL

Check the official injury report closer to tip-off for any updates.

The Game

The Nets showed fight in Cleveland with the comeback. We can’t call it a win, but we can call it encouraging.

Julius Randle is averaging 28 points, seven rebounds, and six assists through two games, while Michael Porter Jr. is averaging 27 points and seven rebounds. Brooklyn trailed by double digits most of the game, but these two kept Brooklyn afloat. That’s also when Egor Dëmin and Mikel Brown Jr. joined in on the fun.

Day’Ron Sharpe fell into foul trouble for a second consecutive game. He picked up a sixth foul – a flagrant – with 6:54 remaining in the fourth quarter. The Nets aren’t built with much size at the five after Sharpe. In the season opener, the Charlotte Hornets shot 17-of-22 at the rim. Brooklyn followed with a good effort on the boards on Saturday, but they still lost the paint battle 46-30 and came up with one blocked shot compared to Cleveland’s 10.

The Indiana Pacers feature a star-studded frontcourt with Pascal Siakam at the four and Ivica Zubac at the five. It’s certainly something to watch out for as the Nets try defending the paint — with a ton of weight on Sharpe.

Player to Watch: Ivica Zubac

First and foremost, it’s good to see Tyrese Haliburton back on the court and playing well. He’s always a player to watch and we all know that. For this particular match, keeping Zubac off the glass is a task that’s about 7-feet too tall. Brooklyn has struggled to contain bigs in recent years.

Zubac’s size and rebounding make him a difficult matchup for Brooklyn, particularly with the Nets struggling to protect the rim and contain opposing centers. Indiana can stretch the floor and put pressure on Brooklyn’s interior defense, forcing the Nets to account for both perimeter movement and Zubac’s presence around the basket.

If Day’Ron Sharpe gets into foul trouble again, Brooklyn could struggle to defend Zubac inside and limit Indiana’s second-chance opportunities.

Hornets center Moussa Diabate finished with 17 points, eight rebounds (five offensive), and five steals against the Nets. Cavs center Jarrett Allen logged 21 points, eight rebounds and two blocks on 7-of-8 shooting in yesterday’s game.

Zubac is star and he’s shown it thus far, averaging 12.5 points, 13 rebounds and 1.5 blocked shots per game. Brooklyn struggles here most — it only feels inevitable Zubac gives them trouble.

Will Mikel Brown Jr. & Egor Dëmin play more together?

Jordi Fernández was asked whether he had seen enough from Brown and Dëmin together to want to use that pairing more often when Brown’s minutes restriction allows it.

His answer offered a glimpse into how he approaches lineup decisions (H/T Brian Lewis):

“Yeah. The way I would explain this is when you’re coaching the game, if you’re coaching thinking you want to play certain guys together, it’s when usually you’re doing it for the wrong reasons. And a lot of times you have to coach the game feeling the game,” Fernández said. “Obviously you have a preparation, you look at their matchups, their sub patterns, yours, your lineups, and you have an ideal way of how you want the game to go. But then when the game goes, there’s fouls, there’s guys that play better, worse. Then you have to start coaching the game and see who can guard this guy or all these things. And I think then the game flows.”

Then…

“Then that’s when I felt like it was a good moment to play together. Did I plan it? No. But a lot of times it’s how basketball is. We have all this preparation, the coaches do a great job putting all these pages and film and so forth. But then at the end of the day, you have to react to a lot of things that are not controllable in the game. And that’s why I know that I’ve gotten this question before, would I like to play them together? Yes. But if I’m just thinking about playing them together, I may not do what’s best for the group at the moment. So that’s the way I feel.”

From The Vault

On this date in 1964, The Rolling Stones made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show

The Stones opened with Chuck Berry’s “Around and Around” and fans screamed so loudly that Sullivan struggled to speak over them, repeatedly asking that the crowd quiet down. CBS received complaints after the broadcast and Ed Sullivan reportedly said: “I promise you they’ll never be back on our show. It took me 17 years to build this show and I’m not going to have it destroyed in a matter of weeks” and wrote to them, “I would like to learn from you, whether your young men have reformed in the matter of dress and shampoo.”

So much for that. The Rolling Stones went on to make five more appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show through 1969… and they’re still making music.

Read More: Fear the Sword, Sports Illustrated, SB Nation NBA, New York Post, New York Daily News, Clutch Points, Nets Wire, Nets Insider, SNY, Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Steve’s Newsletter.

• Brooklyn Nets Game Notes – Brooklyn Nets
• Indiana Pacers Game Notes – Indiana Pacers

Updates, 5:15 p.m.: VJ Edgecombe is the latest to pop up on the injury report with an abdominal contusion.

Update, 1:09 p.m:Embiid has been officially ruled, the reason given is right plantar fasciitis management. Jabari Walker is also out with left knee soreness. It’s good to see that it’s just soreness as the official designation after Walker left the game in the second half against the Bucks.

The Sixers are right back in action Sunday night hosting the Detroit Pistons with an opportunity to go 4-0 to start the young season.

Philadelphia is coming into this one on zero days rest after taking down the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday night in what was a more competitive game than some may have expected going into it. Nevertheless, some impressive performances from Joel Embiid, VJ Edgecombe, Jaylen Brown and Tyrese Maxey helped secure the win for the Sixers to keep them undefeated to start the 2026-27 regular season.

But no rest for the weary. Now, it’s on to the Pistons Sunday evening.

This being the second game of a back-to-back for Philadelphia means we won’t know exactly what lineup the Sixers will have available until this afternoon when the team’s injury report is due. We will bring you that info when it’s available, but we also have a few context clues from the start of this weekend. Embiid indeed played in Saturday’s contest, and the big fella has not played both ends of back-to-backs in years, but he did tell reporters postgame that he wanted to play Sunday, so you never really know. But one could reasonably expect him to possibly pop up on the report for this contest as out for rest/injury management. One can also expect LeBron James, who was out last night for sciatica management, to likely return for tonight.

Speaking of Embiid, it will be interesting to see what happens at the five if Embiid ends up not playing. Adem Bona has been… bad, to say the least. Dean Wade would be another option for starter at the five after making his season debut last night, but he is still playing with a bit of a tweaked ankle, so who knows. We will have to wait and see.

The Pistons have some injury news of their own for Sunday with Jalen Duren ruled out with a right hamstring strain. Duren had a great showing in the Pistons’ season opener, posting 22 points on 8-for-13 (61.5%) field goal shooting with nine rebounds, but only made it through part of the first half of their second outing before tweaking that hamstring and exiting the game. Former 76er Paul Reed will likely start at the five in his place after coming in off the bench for 26 minutes against the Miami Heat in Duren’s absence, posting one hell of a performance himself — 19 points on 8-for-10 field goal and 2-for-2 three-point shooting with 11 rebounds and three assists. Out the mud.

Also for Detroit, Ausar Thompson is questionable after exiting that same contest in the third quarter with an ankle sprain. It’s worth noting that Duren and Thompson are two of the top rebounders for Detroit, which I mention because the Sixers — despite being 3-0 — are still struggling with being outrebounded by their competition pretty consistently.

The Pistons are coming into Sunday on a day’s rest, so they will have that advantage over Philadelphia at least.

Detroit are led by two-time NBA All-Star Cade Cunningham who seems to already be in mid-season form on both ends of the floor, averaging 19.0 points (shooting 50.0% from the floor and 33.3% from long range) with 8.0 assists, 1.0 steal and 2.0 blocks per game over their first few contests. 32-year-old Duncan Robinson is up there with him leading the scoring, also posting 19.0 points per game so far, and the squad has a well-rounded supporting cast, with seven Pistons averaging double-digit points to start the season.

Not only that, but the Pistons have a bit of a tough few games ahead between facing the Sixers today and the New York Knicks on Tuesday, so they’ll be looking to hang tough and keep their heads above water while they await Duren’s return. Just like the Bucks, I wouldn’t expect them to shy away from the challenge Sunday evening.

The Sixers and Pistons tip off at 7:30 p.m. in South Philadelphia.

Game Details

When: Sunday, October 25, 7:30 p.m. ET
Where: Xfinity Mobile Arena, Philadelphia, PA
Watch: NBC Sports Philadelphia
Radio: 97.5 The Fanatic
Follow:@LibertyBallers

This is the fifth and final of a series of roundtable questions I’m asking the staff here at Peachtree Hoops about the Hawks this upcoming season. The final question: what is your regular season record prediction for the Hawks this season and where do they finish in the Eastern Conference?

Wes: My prediction may seem a tad pessimistic, but I have misgivings about the top end offensive talent on this roster. If Jalen Johnson doesn’t take another step, to me this might just be an average offense that struggles against top end teams.

Having said that, there’s a great chance this is an elite defensive unit with perimeter defenders for days. I think the Hawks will be able to grind out a 43-39 record in super deep Eastern Conference and land the 7th overall seed, placing them in pole position to advance to the playoffs through the Play-In Tournament.

Garrett: I have the Hawks going 48–34 and finishing as a top-six seed. There will still be growing pains, particularly when the offense slows down, but I expect this group to win enough games to earn a playoff spot without going through the play-in.

Graham:  The Eastern Conference got better, there’s no question about it. Teams that finished below the Hawks last year include the Sixers, Heat, Magic, and Pacers; they all stand to be significantly better this season (other than, perhaps, Orlando). And when you look at the teams who finished above the Hawks – the Pistons, Celtics, Knicks, Cavaliers, and Raptors – the only teams you could say may drop below the Hawks are the Pistons, and the Raptors (if Kawhi Leonard doesn’t play many games). In saying that, the Hawks also improved. I think the Hawks can win 46-50 games this season, so I’m going to predict a 47 win season and finish 6th in the Eastern Conference. 

I’m leaning towards 47-35 because I expect the bottom teams in the East will want/need to win more games to avoid the NBA Draft relegation zone, so those teams who the Hawks picked off at the back-end of last season may not come as easy this time around. Nevertheless, I think 46 wins and sixth in an improved East would be a very impressive season – this Eastern Conference is stacked, and the Hawks are one of those teams who will showcase that depth this season. 

Malik: Even though my bold was that the Hawks finish as a top-2 seed, realistically, I think they’ll finish 47-35. There’s no doubt that they got better this season, but the Eastern Conference got better as well. There’ll be no days off for any team, and they’re going to have to bring their best every night. The Hawks finished sixth last season, and the teams above them got better, as well as some of the teams that were below them. 

It’s hard to tell if 47 wins will actually be enough to get into the top-six, but it should be, and the Hawks should find themselves in the playoffs for the second straight season.

The Celtics have had some special defenders over the years, players like Marcus Smart, Jrue Holiday, and Kevin Garnett who can quarterback a defense and effectively set the identity of their unit. So far, Paul George fits that mold.

Through two games, George is tied for third with his former teammate Kawhi Leonard at 3.5 steals per game. That number is amazing, while simultaneously underselling just how good he’s been.

Against the Knicks, George quietly put together a masterpiece of defensive versatility, combined with game-changing on and off ball work.

George spent time guarding every single Knicks starter. He opened the game shadowing OG Anunoby, took the Jalen Brunson matchup on the perimeter, and battled with Karl-Anthony Towns in the post. In each scenario, it was as if he had the perfect set of skills to bother them all.

In this instance, George has both Brunson and Landry Shamet to himself in transition. He quickly makes the call to stick with Brunson, asking someone else to pick up Shamet.

He sits down, slides his feet, and beats Brunson to the spot. Accepting the bump and forcing the turnover. This was one of many moments like this where he’s directly responsible for a change of possession that he doesn’t necessarily get credit for in the box score.

It’s extremely impressive that he not only has the foot speed and lateral quickness to stay in front of Brunson, but the instincts to predict what his plans are as well. He’s a player that wins with deception and shiftiness, and George was step for step with him on most possessions they faced off.

This is a nice example of how dialed in George is. Run this clip and just watch him the whole time.

There’s the versatility of being asked to chase Anunoby around a screen, and then being prepared to switch onto the smaller Alvarado. But in the aftermath of a broken coverage, it’s how he’s constantly scanning, rotating and adjusting. He manages to find a man, and effortlessly plucks the ball away from Alvarado.

Watching him glide around, it almost felt inevitable that the play would end with the ball in his hands. He is always trying to plug up the holes even when the possession has morphed into chaos.

Here we see more of his utility. On a sideline out-of-bounds play, he gets the matchup against the larger Towns.

Even with his focus occupied by the Knicks center, he immediately snaps to action, cutting off Brunson’s drive and forcing an earlier dribble pickup than he planned. It results in a tough miss, but the pair of Anunoby and Towns are there to collect it.

Staying with the play, George pokes the ball free to prevent an easy put back. He somehow still has an understanding of the possession to recognize in a millisecond the pass to the corner was coming, managing to deflect it out of bounds.

He claps his hands after that play seemingly disappointed that he didn’t get a steal. That says a lot about his instincts and playmaking abilities.

This is another moment where it’s best to roll the tape and watch George go. It’s very difficult to miss him though, he is everywhere on this possession.

There’s the smaller initial detail where he’s mindful of the matchups, sending Queta to defend Hart so he can stick with Towns. But then it’s a switch onto Brunson. Drive stopped. A switch onto Hart, same story. Then there’s the unreal reaction time to spot Brunson breaking free to the rim, and very nearly shutting that down too.

George was asking for the challenge, and he probably had an argument on the foul call but this is one of those moments where the process is much more noteworthy than the result. We might have to call him spackle with the way he covers up holes.

This one had me sitting up from my couch.

This is a 36-year-old wing with a lot of mileage chasing Brunson around screens. Then he covers up the driving angles and forces a near turnover on the pass deflected by White.

You can trust him in elite matchups on-ball, and it doesn’t feel like there’s a real weakness in his skill set. He’s comfortable navigating screens, and can handle strong or shifty creators.

He sometimes resembles a cat stalking its prey, waiting until the perfect moment to pounce.

This play unfolds so quickly. Right after the Knicks cross half court, Towns and Brunson are already working a two-man game. White gets caught up on the screen and Brunson has daylight ahead of him. In a blink, George is there and ripping the ball free almost the same moment it arrives. Any later to the spot and Brunson gets time to adjust and spray a pass to the corner.

He showed the full package in this one.

The timing of the first rotation is perfect. I appreciate the small detail of coming to a jump stop to challenge McBride, while being careful not to overcommit. He does basically the same thing on Anunoby’s drive, making sure to clear the restricted area, and leaving him caught in the air without a plan.

This level of help defense allows the Celtics to be more aggressive. They can trap, scramble, and recover knowing that George will be exactly where he’s needed.

When Walsh had Brunson, George got to play free safety. He described that role after the game.

“For me on the back end, it was kind of cool to be a safety in that moment, roam around, see where I can be helpful at, and rebound,” George said.

That’s demonstrated perfectly on this possession.

With Towns driving, Walsh, Tatum, and Queta all swarm him. This leaves George to zone up between Hart and Shamet. He reads Towns initially looking to the corner, but doesn’t fully commit, and manages to lunge back into the other passing lane. Taking it all the way to the rack after the steal is vintage Paul George.

One layer of his defensive impact that isn’t getting enough love is his rebounding. He had seven against New York and five in Detroit.

He’s not alone, but getting involved on the glass here likely kept points off the board with Drummond getting good position. He had several contested rebounds, and makes a legitimate effort to find a man and box them out too. Being able to secure a stop with a rebound matters a lot, and George has really done his part there.

We’ve talked about his versatility, and being able to handle different types of matchups. Here he’s battling for position with Towns.

Towns really wanted this ball, and George wasn’t going to let him have it without working for it. What started as a true post up ended with Towns pushed all the way out to the perimeter. George fronted him, denying a touch until he was at the three point line. More on the rebounding front, George finds Towns and boxes him out, then cleans up the loose rebound.

He didn’t have a game saving defensive play, and it was Tatum that took them home, but a moment like this in crunch time matters.

The Knicks grab the rebound and get out running in transition 4-on-4. George should be matching up with Hart who has the ball here, but he’s able to make the instantaneous decision to go pick up Brunson instead. He meets him beyond the three point line so there’s no pull-up available. He sticks with him downhill and forces Brunson to reconsider a drive over him and Robinson. Brunson makes a seemingly open pass but George is all over it. He doesn’t quite get the steal, but he mucks up a whole possession and Towns settles for a deep three.

All it takes in a clutch game against the Knicks is one opening. If George doesn’t think to pick up Brunson in transition, he either has a shot or someone else gets freed up. Stopping these moments before they happen makes all the difference.

George is giving the Celtics everything they could’ve hoped for in his first few games. He’s been an easy fit in the system, and there’s still so much room for chemistry to grow with him on the team.

For him to still be able to handle this kind of workload is incredible. He was switching 1-5 for a full game against the reigning champions and consistently blowing up their actions. He looks like he was built in a lab for defense.

It’s early, but if he stays healthy, I’ll have no problem pushing the All-Defense agenda.