Nic Claxton might not be again to beginning, and even to full velocity but, however he was adequate Sunday to assist gradual Giannis Antetokounmpo and hand the Nets their first win.
“Nic mentioned it after the Orlando sport, I gotta be higher. And [Sunday] he performed like we wish him to play, like the most effective defensive gamers within the NBA … or one of the best,” coach Jordi Fernandez mentioned. “That’s what I’m gonna problem him to do, is have excessive requirements, as a result of we now have excessive expectations from you. “And he introduced that, additionally that management that we want, being the anchor of the protection, speaking always, and really completely happy to see Nic performing like that.”
Claxton got here off the bench for a 3rd straight sport after a hamstring harm sidelined the massive man for your entire preseason.
However he had a double-double (10 factors, 11 boards, two blocks in 22 minutes of taking part in time). And he platooned with Ben Simmons to maintain Antetokounmpo from wrecking the sport plan as he so typically does.
The previous MVP has totally dominated the Nets previously, his second-highest profession common in opposition to any crew coming in opposition to Brooklyn.
Antetokounmpo averaged 29.7 factors in opposition to the Nets final season, and 34.0 in opposition to them the 12 months prior. However they held him to 22 factors on Sunday, simply eight within the first half.
“It’s on all 5 guys in opposition to a man like Giannis. It’s on everyone to be on the identical web page to all load up. It’s not simply on me or Ben or whoever is guarding him,” Claxton mentioned. “I didn’t really feel like I used to be on the market on my own. All people, the entire protection, we had an important sport plan from the coaches and we did an important job executing.”
After logging simply 15:25 off the bench within the opener that he was ejected from and seeing that raised to twenty:26 on Friday in Orlando, Claxton had his taking part in time raised once more.
However he nonetheless isn’t 100%.
“I’m nonetheless discovering [my rhythm]. I’m nonetheless discovering it,” Claxton mentioned. “It’s gonna take a while. However I felt higher at this time being on the market simply serving to out attempting to simply make one thing optimistic occur on each single possession. And I did that.”
Cam Thomas had 32 factors, 25 within the second half.
His 99 factors by way of three video games tied Kevin Durant for second-most by way of three video games to begin a Nets season. Kyrie Irving has the document with 113 in 2019-20.
Bojan Bogdanovic (left foot restoration), Day’Ron Sharpe (left hamstring) and Trendon Watford (left hamstring) had been all out.
The Nets have seen their valuation leap to $4.8 billion in line with the most recent Forbes evaluation, transferring them into eighth-highest within the NBA out of 30.
That valuation is up 25 p.c from a 12 months in the past, tied with the Bucks and Grizzlies for the second-biggest enhance within the league.
The Celtics had the most important leap at 28 p.c.
Maybe most notably, after shedding cash for years, Forbes estimated they made $43 million in working revenue in 2022-23 on total income of $381 million.