Nets Thomas Bright Spot in Loss to Denver
Photo: Special to the NY Beacon
By Derrel Jazz Johnson
Photo: Special to the NY Beacon
A night after hosting, and losing to LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers team, a short-handed Brooklyn Nets team hosted the Denver Nuggets in a tough back-to-back at Barclays Center without perennial NBA All-Star James Harden. Brooklyn battled valiantly, overcoming an early 11-point deficit to go up by as many as 12, but were defeated by reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jokic and Denver, 124-118.
“I’m proud of the guy’s effort, the activity, and the response 24 hours later from last night was great,” Brooklyn second year head coach Steve Nash said after the game. “But details. We talked about it last night and some of that is we have a bunch of guys playing together that haven’t played many minutes together all year, so there’s some cohesion that’s lacking.”
Brooklyn rookie Cam Thomas, came off the bench and led the Nets team with a career-high 25 points. He discussed the feat afterwards. “I just had a chance to shoot more today, came over a rhythm so it paid off,” he said. “I work on the same stuff everyday so me going 4-of-6 is nothing new, nothing surprising.”
Jokic led all scorers with 26 points, 8 of 13 from the floor, 2 of 2 from 3-point land and converted all 8 free throws. Austin Rivers matched Thomas’ bench production with 25 points of his own including 7 of 10 3-pointers.
Brooklyn is away from Barclays Center for a five-game, west coast road trip which begins Saturday on national television (ABC 8:30pm) when they face Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors.
Sports Editor Andrew Rosario contributed to this article.
