Upcoming Games
Tomorrow vs. Hawks: Coverage on YES & the YES App begins at 6:30 p.m.
Saturday vs. Hawks: Coverage on YES & the YES App begins at 2:30 p.m.
Monday vs. Grizzlies: Coverage on YES & the YES App begins at 6:30 p.m.
Tuesday vs. 76ers: Coverage on YES & the YES App begins at 6:30 p.m.
Tipping Off
The Nets will have a direct chance to make up ground in the standings over their next couple of games. Brooklyn has two matchups ahead with Atlanta, which has a four-game edge over the Nets and Raptors for 10th place in the Eastern Conference and the final spot in the play-in tournament, which will determine the East’s bottom two postseason entrants. With a season record of 22-36, the Nets are 1-3 under interim head coach Kevin Ollie, and Thursday’s game will start a four-game homestand for the club.
Nets Notes
Dennis Schröder totaled 33 points and shot 59.1 percent from the floor over the Nets’ last two games, both starts for Schröder after he was used off the bench in the first two games of Ollie’s tenure. Cam Thomas missed Tuesday’s game in Orlando due to a sprained right ankle that he suffered the night before in Memphis, although he said that it’s not as severe as the left ankle sprain that cost him nine games early this season. Trendon Watford took advantage of a bump in playing time versus the Magic, scoring 14 points in a little more than 19 minutes of action to give him his eighth double-digit performance of the year. As part of a 32-assist game against the Grizzlies, 10 players had at least two assists each for the Nets, something that had never been done previously in franchise history during a road game.
Know The Foes
Dejounte Murray tallied 42 points and 22 assists in the Hawks’ first two games playing without Trae Young, who is out following surgery to repair a torn ligament in one of his left fingers. Murray had exactly 11 dimes in each of those games, tying the season high he established Jan. 19 at Miami in another game Young missed. Lamar Stevens was the Grizzlies’ leading scorer in Monday’s Brooklyn-Memphis clash, scoring 17 points off the bench for the injury-riddled Grizz in a lopsided defeat. After receiving inconsistent playing time earlier this season, Stevens is averaging close to 23 minutes of action and 58.7 percent field-goal shooting over his last five games. Missing the injured Joel Embiid after he had left knee surgery in early February, the 33-25 76ers have dropped to sixth place in the East. Philly is just 7-17 this season without Embiid, who is expected to be reevaluated next week.
A Dazzling Fact
When the Nets defeated the Grizzlies 111-86 earlier this week, Kevin Ollie won his first game as the club’s interim head coach in one-sided fashion! He became the third coach in the team’s NBA history, interim or full-time, to win their first game by at least 25 points, joining two men who are in the Hall of Fame as players: Willis Reed and Steve Nash. Reed oversaw a 29-point win over the Clippers on March 1, 1988 and Nash guided the Nets to a 26-point victory over the Warriors in the opener of their 2020-21 season. Stay with YES and the YES App to watch Ollie’s team continue to fight for a play-in spot!