Upcoming Games
Tomorrow at Pistons: Coverage on YES & the YES App begins at 6:30 p.m.
Saturday at Hornets: Coverage on YES & the YES App begins at 6:30 p.m.
Sunday at Cavaliers: Coverage on YES & the YES App begins at 6:30 p.m.
Next Wednesday at Magic: Coverage on YES & the YES App begins at 6:30 p.m.
Tipping Off
Having won four of their last six games, including two against Atlanta, the Nets are 2.5 games behind the Hawks for 10th place in the Eastern Conference, which will be the last spot in the East’s play-in tournament that is going to determine its final two postseason entrants. Brooklyn has won its season series over the Hawks 3-1, giving the Nets a tiebreaker edge in the standings if the teams finish in a two-way tie. Ten of their next 11 games will take place on the road, with the only home date in that stretch being a game against the Pelicans on March 19, the 22nd anniversary of the YES Network’s launch date!
Nets Notes
Dorian Finney-Smith scored 20 points in Tuesday’s win over the 76ers, one off the season high he posted on Nov. 3 in Chicago. Prior to leaving action versus Philadelphia due to a sprained right ankle, Cam Johnson had been red hot over his previous three games, shooting 52.4 percent from the field and 50 percent on 28 three-point attempts. Dennis Schröder has dished out at least seven assists in each of Brooklyn’s last four games. The Nets have given up an average of 103.5 PPG in eight games under interim head coach Kevin Ollie, the fourth-fewest in the NBA since that stretch began Feb. 22 and more than 12 fewer than the team allowed on average over its first 54 games of the season before Ollie was installed.
Know The Foes
Limited to just 12 games as a sophomore last year, former first overall draft pick Cade Cunnigham is averaging 22.2 PPG and 7.4 APG for the 9-52 Pistons as he heads down the stretch of his third NBA season. The 15-47 Hornets continue to play without LaMelo Ball, who has appeared in only 22 games this season due to a right ankle sprain that he suffered in late November and tendinopathy in that same ankle that has prevented him from playing since the end of January. The Cavaliers are dealing with injuries to stars Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley; Cleveland head coach J.B. Bickerstaff announced Tuesday prior to a game against Boston that a left knee bone bruise will require an absence of at least three games for Mitchell, who memorably scored 45 points when the Nets and Cavs clashed in Paris earlier this season, and Mobley suffered a sprained left ankle against the Celtics. Another first overall pick, Paolo Banchero, is at the heart of a huge season for the 36-26 Magic, who currently sit fourth in the East and are approaching what would be just their second 40-win season since 2011-12. Banchero is averaging 22.9 PPG and 6.8 RPG in his second pro campaign.
A Dazzling Fact
Saturday’s win over the Hawks featured a prolific run for the Nets from the perimeter! For just the second time in history, the team did not have any misses on three-pointers in a single quarter while attempting at least eight shots from beyond the arc, doing so in the second quarter when the club hit all eight of its tries. On the call for the action that day with YES was Vince Carter, who just happened to have been in uniform for the Nets the previous time the team went 8-for-8 from long range in a quarter! It happened in another game against the Hawks on Nov. 15, 2008, when Vince hit five of the Nets’ eight treys during the third quarter of a 119-107 win. Three-point shooting will be huge for the current squad as it fights to make the Eastern play-in tournament, so stay with YES and the YES App to catch all the action!