On Vince Carter's jersey retirement night, Brooklyn couldn't overcome the Jimmy Butler-less Miami Heat, falling 106-97. D'Angelo Russell led the Nets with 22 points and six assists, but a joint 42-point effort by Tyler Herro and Haywood Highsmith all but neutralized his output.

Russell finished Saturday's 106-97 loss to Miami with 22 points (6-13 FG, 4-8 3Pt, 6-6 FT), one rebound, six assists, two blocks and two steals over 26 minutes.

After the Los Angeles Lakers traded Russell, Maxwell Lewis and three second-round picks to the Nets last month in exchange for Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton, he dropped 22 points off the bench in his season debut with Brooklyn in a 130-113 loss to the Toronto Raptors on Jan. 1.

Russell has struggled to stay on the floor since joining the Nets in a Dec. 29 trade from the Los Angeles Lakers. He's missed six of the team's last 13 matchups while battling shin and hamstring ailments. The veteran point guard has shouldered a much heavier on-ball burden than with the Lakers during the first half of this season.

Russell (hamstring) is questionable for Saturday's game against the Heat, Erik Slater of ClutchPoints.com reports. Russell missed the 108-84 loss to the Suns on Wednesday, and the questionable tag suggests there might be a chance of the floor general missing yet another game.

In the crosstown rivalry game, New York nearly let up a fourth-quarter comeback, scoring just 15 points in the final 12 minutes. However, Brooklyn's 20 fourth-quarter points weren't enough. The Nets had relatively even scoring across the board,

D’Angelo Russell is adjusting to a featured role with the Brooklyn Nets following a trade from the Los Angeles Lakers. After a tumultuous start to the season in Los Angeles under head coach JJ Redick,

Russell of course is a two-time member of both the Lakers and the Nets, and was making his first return to Los Angeles since the team dealt him to Brooklyn last month. After missing the game winner, Russell took to X with a cryptic message that had Nets fans buzzing. “Muted emotion,” wrote Russell in his post.

Brooklyn Nets guard D'Angelo Russell discussed trying to move on from the tenure with the Los Angeles Lakers before he dropped 19 points.

As the calendar turned toward 2025, the Los Angeles Lakers made a bold roster move, trading D'Angelo Russell to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for versatile forward Dorian Finney-Smith and sharpshooter Gabe Vincent.

Cam Johnson and D’Angelo Russell returned Tuesday night for the decimated Nets, though Nic Claxton got added to their long injury list.