Brooklyn Nets

This will be the first time since the 2021 NBA Playoffs that Ben Simmons has played in a game (not counting the preseason). He joins Kyrie Irving and Kevin ...

The Celtics went on to make the NBA Finals, but the Nets not winning a playoff game was a massive surprise. This will be the first time since the 2021 NBA Playoffs that Ben Simmons has played in a game (not counting the preseason). On Wednesday evening, the Brooklyn Nets are hosting the New Orleans Pelicans at Barclays Center in New York to tip off their new season.

Brooklyn Nets vs New Orleans Pelicans: Here is all you need to know before the NBA 2022/23 opening night game.

The game will be streamed LIVE on Voot. Durant ended up staying, and the roster was boosted with Ben Simmons returning fit. The franchise was then jolted by reports claiming that Kevin Durant had asked the front office to trade him out.

Simmons last played in an NBA game in June 2021 when he was on the Philadelphia 76ers and they lost to the Atlanta Hawks in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

"I think I definitely want to come out here and set the tone. "There's not many guys who can do that," Simmons said of being a defensive trendsetter. So I got to be the motor." After so much time away from the game, Simmons appears to have a new lease on his basketball life. He requested a trade later that summer, citing mental health concerns, and was ultimately dealt to the Nets just before last February's trade deadline. We got a great group of guys here, and we're ready to roll."

Things did not go as planned. The Brooklyn Nets got walloped in the season opener, 130-108, by the New Orleans Pelicans despite Kevin Durant's 32 points on ...

We’re here to support him, we’re here to push him, coach him up, and try to get him to a place where he can play at the level he’s played in the past. “I mean, I think that you see those glimpses throughout the preseason, but now putting it together, really getting his legs under him, his rhythm, and then assimilating to a new group—there’s a lot on his plate. He faked the pass to Kevin Durant, drove to the cup when the defense shifted over toward the Nets’ star, and then had himself another awesome finish through contact to complete the play. Brooklyn got things back on track in the second quarter, beginning with an excellent pass from Ben Simmons to Nic Claxton in the short roll and a corner three from Markieff Morris. Fortunately, the Nets finished the quarter strong when Nic Claxton—the only antidote to the unstoppable force that was Zion Williamson—used his impressive 7’2” wingspan to pin Zion’s layup to the glass, leading to a Kevin Durant three on the other end. A 22-point blowout loss and a 0-1 start to the season with a tough opponent, the Toronto Raptors, headed to Brooklyn on Friday. That’s a part of just being competitive, being aware, and understanding what our weaknesses are and trying to combat them from the start.” Then, three straight steals by Royce O’Neale shrunk that deficit to just 12, and the Pellies were forced to call timeout. In typical Nets fashion, the onslaught began with a slow start, as the Nets missed their first three shots. I think there’s a lot of jitters out there early on, but it was good to get out of the way.” Rebounding was Brooklyn’s Achilles heel on Wednesday, with the Pelicans out-boarding the Nets 61-39. “I talked about the other day, just us being tested and us being challenged,” said Kyrie Irving after the loss.

The Brooklyn Nets opened the 2022-23 season with a disastrous 130-108 home loss to Zion Williamson and the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday.

Kevin Durant (25 PTS) is the only Nets player to score in double figures. The Pels jumped out to a 32-14 lead after one quarter. His three gives him 21, but puts the Pelicans up 25 points with an 87-62 lead at the 4:09 mark of the 3rd quarter.

The Brooklyn Nets fell to the New Orleans Pelicans on opening night.

For Kyrie Irving, he wants to see his teammate Ben Simmons on the floor as much as possible. Having traded James Harden for Simmons, the Nets truly feel as if he can be a key piece alongside Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant. It was a rough Brooklyn Nets debut for Ben Simmons, who fouled out in just 23 minutes.

Looking spry and explosive, Zion Williamson returned from an 18-month absence with 25 points and 9 rebounds.

Unrestricted free agency awaits Kyrie next summer; in the meantime, Irving has that much time to put opening night in the rearview and prove that it was a fluke. And while Durant, Irving and Simmons are all in uniform, the Nets can’t be accurately judged one way or another until Seth Curry and Joe Harris return to the rotation. Therefore, he comes into 2022-23 with plenty of incentive to (a) put aside his quirks, especially if they interfere with his play or threaten the team’s success, and (b) deliver a star-quality season. Question: When was the last time the Nets were at full strength since Durant and Irving teamed up in the summer of 2019? It’s the first of 82, and the Nets have clearly stated a desire to remain patient with Simmons … Kyrie shot just 6-for-19, missed all six of his 3-pointers, and when the Nets needed a second option, he couldn’t fulfill the role. The good news for the Nets is Kyrie is actually eligible to play at home, which wasn’t always the case last season because of his vaccination status. The success and failure of the Pelicans this season, therefore, will rest with what they can muster defensively. The force and rim-attacking and gentle touch around the basket all resurfaced and rekindled the image of Zion as a dominant player, which he was during most of the 85 games played in his short and injury-interrupted career. That said, the level of disappointment needs to be placed in the proper context: It wasn’t anything like his playoff game finish in Philly two years ago when he bypassed a layup over the Hawks’ Trae Young, and there won’t be any dreadful fallout from this game. He also showed a very solid cohesion with Brandon Ingram and the two Pelicans had a 1-2 inside-outside punch all night, with Ingram dropping 28 points. And yet, Simmons in Brooklyn looked suspiciously like the last time we saw Simmons in Philly.