Nets fall 120-116 to Hawks in season-opener despite 36 points from Cam Thomas, feisty play throughout

The Jordi Fernandez era of Nets basketball officially began inside Atlanta’s State Farm Arena on Wednesday night.
The festivities started with the Hawks honoring the late Dikembe Mutombo, who spent seasons with the Nets and Knicks late in his Hall of Fame career, and the night ended with a 120-116 Nets loss — a result fans praying for a tanking season can live with.
Fernandez’s first career win will have to wait for now. The Nets have a road game against the Orlando Magic on Friday before returning to Barclays Center for their home opener against the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday.
However, despite Wednesday’s loss, the offseason trade of former star forward Mikal Bridges and the tank talk that followed the franchise throughout training camp, the Nets, led by Fernandez, did not look the part of an incompetent team.
Yes, they suffered another cold start — an issue that contributed to many lopsided losses last season — but they eventually found their rhythm and had some impressive stretches of play, most notably a 10-0 run midway through the second quarter which helped them take a 55-51 lead into the break. The game was tied at 83 entering the fourth quarter.
Cam Thomas got going on offense after a rough 1-for-7 start, finishing with a game-high 36 points (14-of-27 shooting), five rebounds and three assists in 34 minutes. Seven of those points came in the second quarter, where he went 3-of-5 from the field. He poured in 20 points in the final frame and almost single-handedly willed the Nets to victory.
“He was great,” Fernandez said. “He was very efficient, shot over 50% from the field… His physicality defensively was there, too. He worked on both sides of the floor, and man, I really liked Cam Thomas… I’m happy with him at both ends.”
Second-year forwards Jalen Wilson and Noah Clowney impressed, tallying a combined 23 points and seven rebounds in 34 and 15 minutes off the bench respectively. And despite a game-high tying six turnovers, Ben Simmons, playing in his first regular-season NBA game since Feb. 26, was productive for Brooklyn, finishing with six points, five rebounds and a team-high eight assists in 24 minutes.
Simmons had a troublesome third quarter filled with untimely fouls and head-scratching giveaways. But he finished the game healthy, he looked comfortable on the court, and that counts as an absolute win for the Nets.
“They just made it tough getting into the lanes, and that’s on us to protect the ball,” Simmons said. “I think we did a good job in the first half, then in the second half we were a little lackadaisical with the ball and just careless. But those are things we can learn from and get better at.”
The game did not get out of hand until the fourth quarter when Nic Claxton — making his season debut — swiped at Dyson Daniels’ neck and was promptly ejected after an official review. The Nets led 93-89 at that point. Suddenly energized, the Hawks responded with a 13-1 run and went up 102-92 with 6:46 left.
Claxton was sidelined throughout the preseason because of hamstring soreness, did not start and was on a minutes restriction against Atlanta. He played just 15 total minutes in the loss and contributed seven points, five rebounds, one block and one steal.
“Yeah, that was clearly a foul,” Fernandez said when asked about the play that led to Claxton’s ejection. “You know, we don’t want anybody to see anybody get hurt. I’m pretty sure he didn’t mean to.”
Brooklyn trimmed its late-game deficit down to four at one point, but never truly recovered. An Onyeka Okongwu dunk with 27.3 seconds left put Atlanta up eight and essentially iced the game. Fouls and giveaways ultimately killed the Nets. The Hawks shot 46 free throws and forced 19 turnovers, resulting in 17 points for the home team.
“I loved our physicality,” Fernandez said. “We’ve been talking about Brooklyn grit, right? You saw it with 32 fouls. The only thing is, we got to be smarter. Our technique has to be better. We have to lead with our chest & show our hands. They shot 21 more free throws.”
However, the Nets played hard from start to finish. They were wildly feisty. They played fast in transition and guarded well down the stretch, just like Fernandez preached all preseason. And that is how Fernandez wants fans to remember this 2024-25 Brooklyn team, regardless of how they finish.
“It just turned into a free throw game at the end,” Thomas said. “If we clean up some of the little stuff, we’ll be good.”