The Brooklyn Nets appeared to be on the brink of a season turnaround back in December, when they went 7-4 and led the league in defense.<\/p>\n
Michael Porter Jr. and Nic Claxton led the charge, showing rare early chemistry.<\/p>\n
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Porter had spent his entire career with the Denver Nuggets, getting well acclimated to playing off the ball next to Nikola Joki.<\/p>\n
“We just flow,” Claxton said. “Mike, he just made the game so easy. I think him playing in Denver, him playing with Joker, he really just knows how to cut and he’s a big target out there. He’s easy to pass the ball to. Obviously, he grew his game a lot [in terms of] finding his teammates. He drew a lot of attention for us. Teams would have to double team him off of screens and dribble handoffs. So it just flowed. He’s a high-level basketball player, I’m a high-level basketball player .We just figured it out and created some chemistry pretty quick out there.”<\/p>\n
Though Claxton is mostly known for his defense, he unlocked a new layer to his game this season, elevating MPJ’s effectiveness.<\/p>\n
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“I think Claxand me, our games really feed off of each other,” Porter said. “He’s an underrated passer. He can really read the floor, and so he was able to find me. In that action where I’m coming off triple handoffs, over time we kind of figured out the different reads. We figured out when his defender comes up and blitzes that I can find him in a pocket. We figured out that when his defender’s down the floor, I can kind of get downhill and throw the lob to him, or I can go finish at the rim. And then he’s a good screener as well, so I was able to come off a lot and get a lot of threes that way.”<\/p>\n
“So it was like a match made in heaven, me and Clax playing off of each other. And he’s such a lob threat that he makes the game easy when I’m getting downhill to throw that lob. So it’s so different playing with that type of athlete than it was with Joker. Joker has, for all of his amazing traits, he’s not catching lobs. So it was cool to be able to figure that out with Clax and make that work. So hopefully we get to play together for a long time.”<\/p>\n