Michael Porter Jr. and Julius Randle helped the Brooklyn Nets open their preseason with a dominant 124-90 victory over the Charlotte Hornets.
Brooklyn’s offense produced a much different performance from last season, when the team finished last in the NBA in both offensive rating and 3-point percentage. The Nets shot 55 percent from the field and went 20-for-37 from beyond the arc against Charlotte.
Porter led Brooklyn with 16 points while making four of his six 3-point attempts. Randle added 13 points and three assists.
The two veteran forwards had spent much of the early portion of training camp working with different groups, making the preseason opener an opportunity to continue developing their chemistry.
“Yeah, just getting a feel for each other,” Jordi Fernandez said. “It’s important that they understand, Mike, they have to find him at the 3-point line. Julius, he can score in different ways, get into the paint and then kick it out. And it was cool, because I think Julius found Mike once, but then Mike found Julius once for a 3. So it’s good.
“They’re trying to get those actions together. And it’s been a good first step. We want to keep working on ramping those minutes up and have better feel with the different groups that we’ll have out there. But those two did an amazing job.”
Brooklyn also received productive minutes from Day’Ron Sharpe, who recorded eight points, seven rebounds and two blocks while finishing plus-19. Drake Powell contributed nine points on 4-for-6 shooting and posted a game-high plus-20.
