Kolek 25 Points Helps Knicks Beat Nets
Photo: Special to the NY Beacon
By Shara Talia Taylor
The Brooklyn Nets lost their third matchup of the NBA Summer League, as they fell to their cross-town rivals, the New York Knicks, 97-93 last Tuesday afternoon in Las Vegas.
Both teams had a slow start with success, but the rivalry gave teams a spark. They played competitively throughout the game, but Brooklyn was outscored in half the game and Nets Summer League Coach Steve Hetzel hoped for more shots. “The bottom line for us, is it’s not whether it goes in or we miss, it’s the intent and we did hesitate too much tonight,” he said.
Drew Timme led Brooklyn with 24 points and Caleb Daniels and Quincy Olivari had 16 each. Nets guard Ben Saraf added 11 points and had three rebounds, three assists and two steals.
“Everyone wants to show up and play harder,” Saraf said about the rivalry. “We should have won it, but yeah it was more exciting.”
MarJon Beauchamp and Tyler Kolek helped lead New York to their first win in Vegas with 25 points each. “I thought Tyler and MarJon finally getting the ball to go through and playing with some confidence,” said Summer League Knicks Head Coach Jordan Brink about what made the difference in the game for the win. “Definitely thought the bigs had a little bit to do with that, but it was a group effort.”
Kolek added four assists, two rebounds and four steals for the Knicks. “I think we were 0-2 so we were just desperate to get a win for sure,” he said about playing against the Nets.
Brooklyn trailed 24-21 at the end of the first quarter, but returned to outscore the Knicks 18-17 in the second quarter. The Nets fell off after halftime and were outscored 28-21 in the third quarter, but came back to outscore the Knicks 33-28 in the fourth quarter.
The Nets played with only two of the five rookies selected in the first round of the 2025 NBA draft. Saraf and Nolan Traoré started the game, but the team played without Egor Demin, Drake Powell and Danny Wolf.
Brooklyn made 43.6% of their attempted field goals and 5 of 25 of their 3-pointers. New York made 44.3% of their field goals and 10 of 38 of their 3-pointers.
The Nets took on the Orlando Magic Wednesday afternoon in Las Vegas, winning 94-90. Danny Wolf led Brooklyn with 18 points. Egor Demin also played and contributed 14. The Nets take on the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday.
Recent Comments