Brooklyn Nets forward Cam Johnson is one of the better shooters in the NBA and that will lead to him getting paid in his next contract. However, despite his shooting ability, he has shown the willingness to do the dirty work and he has paid the price for it at times. He feels that Brooklyn is at its best when it plays the same way.
In Tuesday’s 121-107 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Johnson had 23 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field and 3-of-7 shooting from three-point land. However, he also had nine rebounds and one steal as a display of the effort that he gave outside of scoring the basketball. That effort from the team was needed in the second half as Oklahoma City won the final 24 minutes 69-45.
The Thunder out-rebounded the Nets 51-46, but they also had nine steals to Brooklyn’s three. It was clear that Oklahoma City was giving the better effort all game and it all came together in the second half when their three-point shooting regressed to the mean. Once the Thunder started hitting shots, Brooklyn started to falter and couldn’t fall back on its offense to keep them in the game. Johnson spoke after the game about the lack of effort the Nets gave in the second half:
“The biggest thing that we take away is we know how we need to play to win and then, sometimes just scrappy, gutty and dirty you know, we’re not playing pretty out there. And, that’s how, you know, the game starts to favor us. So, I just think we need to get back to that and just, you know, continue to compete at a high level and you know, it’s the NBA. You’re not gonna win them all, you’re not gonna lose them all. Some games go your way, some games don’t, but I think there’s a lot to learn.”
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