Sunday was an afternoon filled with mixed emotions for Nets fans.

Earlier in the day, Brooklyn traded Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton to the Los Angeles Lakers for D’Angelo Russell, Maxwell Lewis and three second-round picks. The move came just weeks after the team sent Dennis Schröder to the Golden State Warriors, hellbent on clearing cap space, stockpiling future draft picks and acquiring intriguing young talent to assist its current rebuild.

“We miss toughness, leadership, day to day happiness and about being about the right things and all that stuff,” head coach Jordi Fernandez said when asked about the Finney-Smith trade after the game. “It’s just very simple that if we were to have that maturity and that toughness, we close this game.”

Later Sunday, the shorthanded Nets fell to an injured Orlando Magic team 102-101 at Kia Center in a game where Cam Thomas returned from a 13-game absence. After trailing by as many as 21 points in the second half, the Magic ended the game on a 22-4 run, capped off by a game-winning floater from Cole Anthony with 1.3 seconds left.

Brooklyn dropped its second straight game and fell to 12-20 with the loss.

“This is a tough one,” Fernandez said. “It hurts for me because I don’t ever want my team to look like this… I’m very disappointed with the effort and the focus and the finish.”

Thomas, appearing in his first game in over a month, checked in with 4:48 left in the first quarter and picked up right where he left off, finishing with a game-high 25 points on 6-for-18 shooting. He added six rebounds and six assists in 25 minutes, becoming the first Net all-time to post 25/5/5 off the bench with at least 10 free throws made.

After suffering a series of poor offensive performances without the services of Thomas and Schröder, the Nets found early scoring success against Orlando, as they shot 68.8% in the first quarter and 50% in the second to take a commanding 61-43 lead into halftime.

Noah Clowney scored 11 of his 13 points in the first half to help create early separation. The Nets also made nine of their 13 3-pointers through two quarters of action. Brooklyn led the Magic 83-68 through three quarters, its biggest lead through three quarters this season and the fewest points it has allowed through three quarters this season.

The Magic outscored Brooklyn 34-18 in the final frame. After a Jalen Wilson 3-pointer put the Nets up 17 points with 7:16 left, they went 0-for-7 from the field with five turnovers. Their last four points of the game came from Wilson at the free throw line.

Thomas’ 3-pointer from the left corner fell short as time expired.

“We just needed one more grown up to bring the guys together and calm everybody down and execute a defensive end and win the game,” Fernandez said. “And it didn’t happen. So, I put that on all the guys on our team that are over 23 years old.”

Tristan da Silva paced Orlando with 21 points, six rebounds and seven assists. Johnson did not play in the fourth quarter because of hip soreness.

The Nets will return to action on Wednesday against the Toronto Raptors at Scotiabank Arena.

©2024 New York Daily News. Visit at nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.