The AP reports:
The New Jersey Nets are still far away from their Russian owner’s goal of making the team a global brand and NBA champion. But for now, at least, they’re the league’s most successful team in games played in Europe.
Brook Lopez scored 25 points and New Jersey ended a six-game losing streak with a 116-103 victory over the Toronto Raptors on Friday in the first regular-season game on the continent.
Kris Humphries had 18 points and 17 rebounds and Deron Williams earned his first win since being acquired from the Utah Jazz last week, adding 16 points and 11 assists…
The Nets and Raptors will face each other again at the O2 on Saturday, as the NBA decided to bring regular-season games to Europe for the first time as part of its push to increase its fan base on the continent. The O2 has hosted preseason games for the last four years.
The attendance for Friday’s game was an announced sellout of 18,689, but there were some empty seats.
“I loved the crowd,” said Bargnani, who was the highest-scoring European player on the night. “I really felt the excitement. I was nervous in the first half. I think it’s going to be better tomorrow.”
The unusual venue meant the public announcer had to do some extra work, explaining some of the basic rules every now and then to the British crowd— like pointing out that a player fouled while shooting gets two free throws.
And with crowd support split between the two teams—despite the Nets being listed as the home team—players had the rare experience of being booed by rival fans before every free throw, and then cheered by their own supporters if the shot was good.
