The Brooklyn Nets returned to Barclays Center on Sunday still chasing their first win of the 2026-27 season, and they did it on tired legs. Mikel Brown Jr. was out with back injury management as Brooklyn faced the Indiana Pacers in the second game of a back-to-back.
That is why Pacers vs Nets was drawing attention in Brooklyn: the home team was coming off a 125-121 loss in Cleveland on Saturday, a game it nearly flipped after erasing a 22-point deficit. Brooklyn outscored Cleveland 41-29 in the fourth quarter, but the rally fell short and the Nets were still winless entering Sunday.
Brown’s absence matters because it was not a one-night issue. He had already been on a minutes restriction, and the back problem traces to the preseason, when he rolled his ankle. The team was also expected to keep him out of the second night of back-to-backs for the foreseeable future, which means this was not just a lineup note for one game. It was part of a broader plan to manage his workload early in the season.
The matchup also put Brooklyn’s depth under a brighter light. The Nets had already lost the paint battle 46-30 against Cleveland, finished with one blocked shot to Cleveland’s 10, and saw Day’Ron Sharpe pick up a sixth foul, a flagrant, with 6:54 remaining in the fourth quarter. Indiana arrived after a 16-point loss to the Dallas Mavericks, but the Pacers still brought enough frontcourt size to test Brooklyn where it had already been stretched.
That matters because the Nets do not have much margin right now. Mikel Brown Jr. is still being handled carefully, the rotation is already thin, and the schedule has put Brooklyn on the second night of a back-to-back before it has found its footing. The next injury report will matter, but so will the same question that hung over Sunday from the start: how long can the Nets keep asking short-handed legs to cover size they do not have?
