Jordi Fernandez got the first win of his career and his Nets got their first victory of the season, a 115-102 mauling of Milwaukee.
And they did it in front of a sellout crowd of 17,926 at Barclays Center on Sunday that included Fernandez’s family, having flown from Spain to soak in the moment.
“It was fun. And wet,” Fernandez said of the locker room celebration, where he got doused and got the game ball. “Yeah, on one side it’s very special, because I have my wife, my kids, my parents, my good friends, my mother-in-law, her husband. So I have my loved ones here, so it’s very special. [I’ve] come all the way from the bottom in the NBA and working really hard and move up. It’s really cool.
“You have to enjoy this moment, because there’s only one time that you’re the head coach when you win a [first] game. On the other hand, I also feel like what’s the next step, and we’ve got to move on to the next thing. I want to be in this league, I want to be with this club for a long time.”
Nets owner Joe Tsai and general manager Sean Marks entrusted Fernandez — the first Spanish head coach in the NBA — with this rebuild.
And his first victory broke a three-game skid in home openers (tied for the worst in team history) and snapped a five-game losing streak against the Bucks.
The Nets (1-2) did it behind Cam Thomas’ game-high 32 points — 25 in the second half — and Dennis Schroder’s 29 points and six assists.
They’re the first teammates in Nets history to score 25 in a home opener, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
And the Nets did it behind the kind of team defense Fernandez has preached.
“A guy from Europe, from Spain, being a head coach in the NBA, it’s big-time. What he brings to this locker room, that grit, to play hard, to do everything together as a team, building chemistry. All those things are great for us,” Schroder said. “He brought that to the team. Congrats to him for winning it and the locker room went crazy.”
That defense sparked a 10-0 fourth-quarter run that turned a four-point lead into a 14-point cushion and kept Giannis Antetokounmpo somewhat in check.
After wrecking so many games against the Nets, Nic Claxton (10 points, 11 rebounds) and Ben Simmons combined to hold the former MVP to 22 points.
Trailing 17-16 after Damian Lillard (21 points, four assists) hit a free throw with just under four minutes left in the first quarter, the Nets reeled off nine unanswered points to seize the momentum.
Schroder found Ziaire Williams for a driving layup to cap the run for a 25-17 lead.
Simmons found Dorian Finney-Smith for a 3-pointer to pad the cushion to 61-54 with 8:25 left in the third.
The Nets lost the lead on a 12-4 Bucks run, capped by Antetokounmpo’s free throw.
But the Nets retook it for an 83-78 edge going into the fourth, where they opened it up.
Clinging to a tenuous 89-85 lead with 9:18 to play, the Nets held Milwaukee scoreless for the next 2:28 and without a basket for over four minutes.
A Thomas and-one capped a 10–0 run for a 99-85 lead with 7:04 left.
The Nets padded the lead to 22 and held on to give Fernandez the game ball.
“It represents a moment in my life,” Fernandez said. “You look at it and it’s the beginning of something special. That’s how I’m going to look at that ball. I’m going to put it in my office, because my wife does a great job decorating the house, and she doesn’t want my basketballs everywhere. So she says, ‘That [goes] in your office.’
“But I can look at it, and I can believe that that’s the beginning of something very special. And like I said before, coming from Joe, Sean and the rest of the team, that’s how we’re going to do it. And it’s cool, because you just see one and you want to see them keep coming, and I think it’s very special.”
