The Brooklyn Nets routed the New Orleans Pelicans 145-111 on Wednesday night at Smoothie King Center, a 34-point blowout built on the return of rookie guard Egor Demin, who scored 22 points in his first game back from a right leg bone bruise that had sidelined him for five games.
Demin, the No. 8 pick in last year's draft, made 5 of 8 shots from the field and 4 of 6 from three-point range in 23 minutes, nearly tripling his season scoring average of 7.8 points per game. He was one of five Nets to reach double figures: Michael Porter Jr. added 22 points on 7-of-14 shooting, Julius Randle had 17, Day'Ron Sharpe scored 15 off the bench, and rookie Danny Wolf contributed 10 points and 11 rebounds. The final score and box score are confirmed by ESPN's game summary.
A rough return for New Orleans
Zion Williamson led the Pelicans with 29 points on 8-of-14 shooting, going 12 for 14 from the free-throw line in 30 minutes, but little else went right for New Orleans. Dejounte Murray managed just 5 points and finished a team-worst minus-33 for the game, and the Pelicans allowed their most points of the season while managing their own leading scorer's effort to end in a loss. New Orleans entered the night at 4-8; Brooklyn improved to just 3-8 with the win, its only victory in its last nine games.
Demin's health had been an open question for more than two weeks. He injured his leg on Oct. 27 during an overtime loss to the Boston Celtics at TD Garden after logging just 10 minutes, and Nets coach Jordi Fernandez said afterward that the rookie would be reevaluated in a week. That evaluation stretched into a five-game absence, with Fernandez telling reporters only that Demin was "progressing well" ahead of Wednesday's trip to New Orleans, long targeted internally as his likely return date.
What his shooting says about the pick
The outside shooting was the more pointed story within the team. Demin arrived in the league with a reputation, built over one season at BYU, as a gifted passer who struggled badly from three-point range — a weakness that made Brooklyn's decision to take him eighth overall one of the more contested calls of the 2025 draft. He shot better than 50 percent from deep on Wednesday, continuing a trend from earlier in the season: in a January loss to these same Pelicans, Demin had hit five three-pointers in a 17-point outing, evidence that the perimeter shot that scouts doubted has begun to come around.
For a Nets team in the early stages of a rebuild around Demin, Wolf and other recent draft picks, performances like Wednesday's matter more than the standings. Brooklyn's front office has been explicit that this season is about development rather than wins, and a 34-point win over another lottery-bound team will not change that calculus. But a healthy, productive Demin is central to how the Nets' timeline is supposed to work, and his first game back offered the clearest sign yet that the bone bruise has not set him back.
The Nets continue their road trip later this week, while the Pelicans, already without several key rotation players to injury this season, will look to Williamson's continued health and scoring as their clearest path out of the league's bottom tier. Both teams next see each other later this season, with Wednesday's result unlikely to carry much weight by then beyond the box score.
