OKLAHOMA CITY — In Ziaire Williams, the rebuilding Nets took a flier on a former lottery pick as a salary dump. He’s an athletic floor-running defender whose jumper has been his weakness. But if he can keep shooting the way he has lately, their gamble might come good.

At least this time, the Nets showed some heart. But they had it broken, falling 102-101 to the Lakers, aided by some endgame heroics from LeBron James.

The Brooklyn Nets ruled out Ben Simmons and D'Angelo Russell for Monday's home matchup against the Indiana Pacers due to their respective injuries.

Brooklyn Nets face setbacks as D’Angelo Russell misses four games due to injury. Learn about his injury and recovery timeline.

Here are three Brooklyn Nets takeaways from Friday's 102-101 loss at the Los Angeles Lakers in D'Angelo Russell's return to Los Angeles.

For Lakers rookie Bronny James, the game was extra special as he got reunited with Nets forward Ziaire Williams, his former teammate at Sierra Canyon School in Los Angeles. After the matchup, James and Williams exchanged jerseys and posed for a picture. The Lakers guard posted it on his Instagram story.

The Los Angeles Lakers were fighting with everything they had to avoid picking up a loss in the Crypto.com arena on Friday night. The Brooklyn Nets, who started the night at 14-27, should have been easy pickings for the Lakers but without Anthony Davis,

Nikola Jokic posted his league-leading 17th triple-double of the season, bundling 24 points with 12 rebounds and 10 assists in the Denver Nuggets' 133-113 road win over the Miami Heat on Friday night.

Austin Reaves scored a career-high 38 points, LeBron James added 29 points with eight assists, and the Los Angeles Lakers overcame the absence of Anthony Davis to earn a 102-101 victory over the visiting Brooklyn Nets on Friday.

The Nets are expected to trade forward Cam Johnson and potentially Nic Claxton ahead of the 2025 NBA trade deadline in February

Therefore, this new injury may spark some concern among fantasy managers, even with the Pacers only playing three games during Week 12. Ben Sheppard (< 1% rostered, Yahoo) started the second half of Sunday’s game.