The Brooklyn Nets suffered a rough 121-107 loss to the Boston Celtics on Friday in Brooklyn’s second game of the In-Season Tournament. In the contest, with the Nets down three starters in Ben Simmons, Cam Thomas, and Nic Claxton, it was clear that Brooklyn was going to fight for as long as it could, but that it didn’t have the firepower to keep up with the Celtics.
While Friday’s loss was one that all of the players will want to forget, it was a good day for Cam Johnson in the sense that he came back from his left calf strain that cost him the last seven games. Johnson has had better games in his career as he had 11 points on 4-of-13 shooting from the field, but seeing him on the court was a good sight for anyone in or around the Nets organization.
Friday’s loss to Boston showed what can happen when Brooklyn doesn’t stick to its principles of limiting offensive rebounds and turnovers. The Nets allowed 17 offensive rebounds that turned into 29 second-chance points and they turned the ball over 12 times, resulting in 18 points for the Celtics.
Johnson spoke after the game about Brooklyn failing in those two areas while also acknowledging that the team is still working to get better:
“It’s (playing with pace) something that we can do, that press slowed us down a little bit, you know? We’re also all scrambling, crashing back for rebounds that, you know, getting the ball out of the net, facing a set defense, facing the presses, things that’ll slow you down. I don’t know how many fast-break points we had, transition points we had today, but I know there weren’t many. And, that’s an area of the game that we’ve been thriving in. So, just getting back to that. Like I said, man, it’s a work in progress trying (to) figure out lineups and everything. And, I can’t tell you that enough that (we’re) just excited to get to the next one now.”
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