In the NBA regular season on December 14, Beijing time, the Suns faced the Nets on their home court. The Suns fielded five players, Booker, Durant, Beal, Nurkic and Metu, while the Nets fielded five players, Thomas, Bridges, Johnson, Claxton and Dinwiddie.
At the start of the game, the Nets' Thomas hit the first goal of the game and then broke through to score. The Suns' Nurkic scored a layup, and after Durant broke through the foul, Beal received consecutive assists from Booker and Durant to score four points. The scores of the two sides were tight, with the Nets' Johnson scoring 4 points in a row, and the Suns' Metu scoring 5 points in a row inside and out, responding quickly. Durant scored four points from mid-range after halftime. However, in the final stretch of the Nets, Sharpe scored three consecutive points, Bridges fouled from the outside, Durant made a free throw and scored eight points in a row. At the end of the first quarter, the Suns trailed the Nets by nine points, 32-31.
In the second quarter, the Nets' Johnson hit two three-pointers from the outside, and Watford and Reus scored in quick succession. Goodwin and Little scored back-to-back layups after the Suns' Booker hit a mid-range shot. Booker exploded immediately, scoring five free throws in the quarter and scoring 16 straight points. Metu and Durant hit two three-pointers from the outside. However, the Nets blossomed more, Johnson scored another three-pointer, Watford scored four straight points, and Claxton hit a three-pointer from the outside to score eight straight points in the first quarter. At halftime, the Suns trailed the Nets by eight points, 56-64.
In the second half, the Suns' Big Three took turns to attack, with Beal scoring five points in a row, Durant scoring four points from mid-range, and Booker scoring on a jumper. After Little hit a three-pointer from the outside, the Suns went on an 11-2 run. The Nets reacted quickly, and Dinwiddie broke through to score 2 1Bridges hit a solid three-pointer from the outside. Luckily, Booker scored four points on a tough offensive basket. The Nets relied on Bridges and Dinwiddie to hold on tightly to the point difference, and the two combined for 13 points. The Suns' Nurkic also exploded, scoring nine straight points from the basket and grabbing 12 rebounds. At the end of the third quarter, the Suns led the Nets by two points, 88-86.
In the final quarter, Thomas scored two three-pointers to score eight points. Luckily, the Suns' Little and Beal responded to the outside line in a timely manner. However, Royce and Dinwiddie each hit two more three-pointers. With Dinwiddie's breakaway score, the Nets extended the gap to eight points in the final minute and a half. With Thomas hitting a free throw, in the end, the combined debut of the Suns' Big Three lost 112-116 to the Nets!
For the Suns, Booker contributed 34 points, six rebounds and 12 assists. Durant finished with 27 points, six rebounds and four assists. Nurkic had 15 points, 22 rebounds and three assists. Beal had 14 points, one rebound and four assists. Little had 10 points, seven rebounds and three assists.
And for the Nets, Thomas had 24 points, two rebounds and four assists. Bridges contributed 21 points, three rebounds and two assists. Dinwiddie had 16 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. Johnson contributed 15 points, five rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocks. Claxton had 14 points and seven rebounds.