It was a mixed day Friday, as it often is, in the development game as the Long Island Nets lost at the buzzer to the Squadron in Birmingham, 104-102. With 0.6 seconds remaining Trey Alexander\u2019s game-winner sent the Nets back to Long Island.<\/p>\n
Neither of the two Brooklyn players assigned to the G League affiliate played that much of a role, particularly after they had looked so good Thursday. The three two-ways played solid ball as they often do and Grant Nelson, on a G League contract, registered his first double-double of the season adding to the intrigue around his future.<\/p>\n
Beyond his 14 points and 12 rebounds in 25 minutes, there was another milestone. This was also his 14th straight start, matching the number of games he missed to a knee injury since resolved. The 25 minutes was most he\u2019s played on a minutes restriction since his return. In those 14, he\u2019s played 288 minutes or 20.6 per game. On a per-36 basis, he\u2019s averaged 24.2 points and 11.6 rebounds while shooting better than 60% from the floor.<\/p>\n
How long will the restrictions last? Nelson said recently that he doesn\u2019t know, but there has been progress from 16 to 18 minutes early on to 22 to 25 now. Also unresolved is who, if anyone, will fill the 15th and final roster spot in Brooklyn. That will likely have after-effects on Long Island.<\/p>\n
His 14 points were tied for second on the team. While he only connected on three of his seven shots from the field, he was perfect from the foul stripe, going five-for-five. He missed on his only try from 3-point land. This is something that he\u2019s been trying to integrate more into his game. He\u2019s shot 2-of-13 from three this season.<\/p>\n
Perhaps Nelson\u2019s best trait was his ability to rebound the ball. Nelson hauled in 12, which led the team and was tied for the game-best. It also marked a career-high. Nelson brought in seven boards offensively. On top of his rebounds, Nelson also had three assists and one block. Nelson\u2019s one Achilles heel in this one was his turnovers, in which he had four.<\/p>\n
As for the Brooklyn rookie, Ben Saraf, he was one of the stars in Thursday\u2019s Long Island win. His performance looked to be one he could build on and get back on the right path. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Saraf finished the game with just seven points. To make matters worse, he shot an abysmal 25%, connecting on just three of his 12 tries, only making one of his five tries from deep.<\/p>\n
As for Josh Minott, he too shone Thursday in Long Island\u2019s win, making a statement debut with Long Island. Sadly, in this one, Minott also proved to be a non-factor. Minott also connected on just three of his 12 shot attempts, including going two-for-seven from deep. He finished this one with nine points.<\/p>\n
Minott also had four rebounds and two assists. One aspect of the game where Minott continued to do very well is shot blocking. The 6\u20198\u201d finished Friday\u2019s game with three blocks. His three blocks not only led the team, but were the most in the game.<\/p>\n
EJ Liddell flirted with a double-double, connecting on five of his 12 tries, for 14 points, and brought in eight rebounds. Liddell also had one assist, one steal, and two blocks.<\/p>\n
As for Tyson Etienne,he tallied 10 points in this one, connecting on just three of his seven tries. He went two-for-four from deep and also went two-for-three from the foul stripe. From the onset of this game, Etienne\u2019s shots just weren\u2019t looking as sharp as normal, which caused him to take substantially less than normal. Etienne also had four rebounds and three assists.<\/p>\n
The Long Island bench looked better than the starters for almost the whole game. The third and final two-way player on hand for Long Island in this one, Chaney Johnson, scored 10 points off the bench. Johnson also hauled in 10 rebounds, giving him him a double-double. Malachi Smith led the team in scoring, tallying 17 points in his 30 minutes, as Hunter Cattoor came alive in the fourth quarter, finishing with 12 points.<\/p>\n
The Long Island Nets (14-10) return to the court on Monday, February 23rd, for a showdown with their former friend, Kendall Brown, and the Maine Celtics. This marks Long Island\u2019s first of four straight home games as they make their return to the Nassau Coliseum. The game tips off at 7:00 p.m. EST and can be watched on the NBA G League website, as well as on the Gotham Sports app.<\/p>\n
Boxscore: Birmingham Squadron 104, Long Island Nets 102<\/a> – G LeagueGame Highlights: Birmingham Squadron 104, Long Island Nets 102 (Video)<\/a> – G League<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a mixed day Friday, as it often is, in the development game as the Long Island…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3767],"tags":[7,670,247,3803,39773,6,671],"class_list":{"0":"post-616105","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn-nets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-brooklyn-nets","11":"tag-brooklynnets","12":"tag-long-island-nets","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-nets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116109721720454787","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}