The Nets finally win one, 98-90 at Indiana, and the Pacers fall to 2-5

The Brooklyn Nets are off the schneid. Michael Porter Jr. scored 23 points and Julius Randle added 20 as Brooklyn beat the Indiana Pacers 98-90 on Sunday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse for its first win of the season, per the AP recap on ESPN.

Brooklyn is 1-5. Indiana dropped to 2-5, and this one was not pretty for either side.

Ugly first half, clear second half

The Nets shot 38% in the first half and still led 43-40 at the break, because the Pacers were worse. Indiana made 32% of its shots and went 4 of 20 from 3-point range before halftime. Randle's 3-pointer with under five minutes left in the first quarter erased Indiana's last lead at 10-9.

Brooklyn led by 12 three different times in the third quarter and took a 71-62 lead into the fourth. Larry Nance Jr. and Andrew Nembhard hit back-to-back 3s in the first three minutes of the final quarter to make it 75-72. That was as close as Indiana got.

Sharpe did the dirty work

Day'Ron Sharpe had 15 points and a team-high 13 rebounds off the bench, and the Nets won the glass 43-37. Nolan Traore added 16 points, Moritz Wagner had 14 and Porter added nine rebounds to his 23 points.

The Nets managed all of it without rookie Mikel Brown Jr., who sat for load management with the Knicks waiting on Monday night.

Indiana's injury list is the story

Nembhard led the Pacers with 23 points and Pascal Siakam scored 17, but there isn't much behind them right now. Obi Toppin missed his second straight game with a lower back injury, and coach Rick Carlisle said he could play Monday. Zubac is out with a left ankle sprain, and Haliburton is expected to miss at least 10 more days with a hamstring strain. T.J. McConnell was also out.

The RANT take

A win is a win, and Brooklyn needed one before a Monday trip to face the Knicks. Still, it came against a Pacers team playing without Haliburton, Zubac, Toppin and McConnell, and Brooklyn still needed a 43-37 edge on the glass to put away a team that shot this poorly. Indiana's problem is more urgent. At 2-5, it has to stay afloat for at least another week and a half before Haliburton is back.

Watch Brown's status for Monday and Toppin's return for Indiana. Those are the two lineup changes that matter next.