Heading into Wednesday night’s game, Tyrese Martin had 33 points throughout his entire NBA career.
A 25-year-old former UConn player was fantastic, making eight of ten three-point attempts in 28 minutes and helping the Brooklyn Nets defeat the Suns 127-117 in Phoenix. Eight threes off the bench are the second-most in team history for the Nets.
He also became the second player in NBA history to score more than 30 points after coming off the bench with a career average of under 2 points; the first was Joe Caldwell back in 1964.
Martin had averaged 33 points in his first 21 career games in the NBA coming into this game. He was in the rotation because leading scorer Cam Thomas was out, and Martin connected on 10 of 13 field-goal attempts while missing only two of 10 attempts from 3-point range.
Devin Booker put up 31 points, and Kevin Durant contributed 30 points along with eight rebounds for the Suns, who suffered their sixth loss in seven games. With Durant on the court, Phoenix’s record dropped to 9-2.
Bradley Beal scored 17 points but spent the final 6 minutes, 38 seconds with an ankle injury.
Cameron Johnson of Brooklyn played well against his former team, scoring 11 points, pulling down eight rebounds, and making six assists. He was one of the players involved in the trade that sent Kevin Durant to Phoenix in February 2023.
The Nets were made aware of the development on Wednesday when informed that Thomas would be reassessed in three weeks. He suffered a hamstring injury, having been injured during Monday’s Brooklyn victory over the Golden State Warriors.
The Nets shot 50.6% from the field, sinking 18 of 42 three-point attempts for a 42.9% success rate. The Suns, meanwhile, achieved a shooting percentage of 53.2%, making 12 of 31 three-pointers, which is 38.7%. Brooklyn was down by one at halftime but opened the third quarter with a powerful 17-3 run, taking an 80-66 lead.
The Suns quickly replied with a 13-4 run, cutting the gap to five with two and a half minutes left in the period as Durant scored.
Brooklyn extended their lead by the final second to 96-84, with Schroder making two free throws remaining, and Phoenix then made turnovers, followed by fouls by Durant at the buzzer on Martin, who also made two of three of his free throw attempts.
Martin hit consecutive 3-pointers, extending Brooklyn’s lead to 111-93 with 8:13 left in the game. Booker then added four points before Martin scored another three, pushing the lead to 17 with 6:48 remaining.
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