Tag: Lonnie Walker IV

NEW YORK — Lonnie Walker IV has been having an incredible season for the Brooklyn Nets and in fact, it will most likely go down as his best season to date. While Walker could rest on the fact that he has been one of the best players on Brooklyn’s roster this season, he relishes the opportunity that he has.

“I mean, it’s a blessing,” Walker said after notching 20 points and two steals in Sunday’s 118-109 win over the Chicago Bulls. After Sunday, Walker now has five 20-point outings in addition to being on pace to have career-highs in every statistical category. Despite how well he’s playing, Walker has more on his mind as this season goes on.

“To be honest with you, it don’t feel like anything,” Walker explained. “I’m on a min (veteran’s minimum contract of one year, $2.34 million), and I think that’s something that I really do carry on my shoulders, I carry on my chest, understanding my capabilities.” Walker has been in the league since he was drafted with the 18th overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft and after five seasons, he found himself only being able to garner the minimum on the free-agent market.

Walker has expressed his happiness to be in Brooklyn because of how much head coach Jacque Vaughn and his staff believe in Walker, but he is using this past summer as motivation for his play right now. He is showing why he is so confident in himself. “So, it feels good playing this way. I don’t want to be cocky or anything, but I expected this because I know what type of player I am,” Walker said.

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NEW YORK — The Brooklyn Nets have had a better start to this season considering all of the injuries that they’ve had to deal with unless with the tough schedule. However, at some point, the Nets will have to be able to win games against their tougher opponents if they are going to be in the postseason.

“We gotta dance in the storm,” Lonnie Walker IV said after scoring 26 points in Sunday’s 121-99 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers. Sunday was the fourth time that Walker scored over 20 points this season, tying him with Dallas Mavericks swingman Tim Hardaway Jr. for the most 20-point games for any player off the bench this season. As great as Walker played, Brooklyn could not get back into the game.

“The game’s all about runs,” Walker explained. “You get punched in the face, you know? Instead of us backpedaling, we continue to fight. We can’t put our heads down or be upset. Don’t think about the last possession, just keep on moving forward.”

One thing that was noticeable from Sunday’s loss was how physical Philadelphia was being with Brooklyn starting with the last four minutes of the second quarter, when the 76ers went on a 20-5 run to go into halftime leading 61-49. The issue was, the Nets were unable to provide a counterpunch against the favored 76ers no matter how hard they tried.

Brooklyn had a similar issue happen to them in their loss to the Miami Heat where a similar run seemingly put the game out of reach from that point forward. Walker believes that the Nets have a solution for that. “I think it all starts with just trying to be more defensive minded, including myself. Not let our offense dictate our defense, let our defense dictate our offense, which (is) what we’ve been doing,” Walker said.

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For a variety of reasons, the Brooklyn Nets have been underdogs in most of their games so far this season. That remained the case going into Thursday’s game against the Miami Heat since Brooklyn was missing Ben Simmons and Cam Thomas and Miami was coming into the game with a six-game winning streak.

Thanks to a 14-0 run going into halftime, the Heat eventually beat the Nets 122-115 despite Brooklyn getting 23 points from super-sub Lonnie Walker IV. From looking at all of the team stats following the loss, it was clear that Brooklyn had little to no transition game as Miami outscored them 18-11 in fastbreak points and that’s supposed to be the Nets’ bread-and-butter.

Brooklyn did out-rebound the Heat 40-32 and they outscored Miami 25-11 in second-chance points, but with a little over four minutes left in the second quarter, the Heat built up the kind of momentum that seemed to carry them through the rest of the game. Walker spoke after the game about how Brooklyn has to figure out where they can improve to prevent game-changing runs like the one Miami had towards the end of the second quarter and he’s what he said:

“It was just one of those games, you know? Sometimes, the ball doesn’t go inside the hoop. We got to find ways just to continuously attack, be aggressive and keep going, you know? But, I really don’t got too much to say. I think we just fought back, you know? We did what we were supposed to do. Just got to see where we can improve.”

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Brooklyn Nets guard Lonnie Walker IV has been incredible for the Nets ever since this season started, but Sunday represented a blend of something new and something recurring when it comes to his season so far. Walker had his first bad game of the 2023-24 season, but he also felt more pain in his left knee.

With about 18 seconds left in the first quarter of Brooklyn’s 102-94 win over the Washington Wizards, Walker drove to the rim and tried to finish over Wizards forward Deni Avdija. However, Walker missed the layup and landed hard on the court with a bunch of players still around him.

While Washington rebounded the ball and went towards the other side of the court, Walker was still down for the entire Wizards possession until the end of the period where he needed help getting off the hardwood. Once Walker was helped to his feet by some teammates, he walked gingerly off the court to the Nets locker room where he remained until Brooklyn came out to warm up for the second half.

Walker participated in the warm up and after that, the Nets announced that he was available for the second half. So, with Walker being able to finish the game, it looks like Brooklyn avoided another injury to one of its important players, but time will tell if Walker will miss games moving forward. He believes that he won’t:

“It’ll (his left knee) do its job, i’ll be ready for next game. If my leg’s not broken, I’m going to keep playing, you know? My pops always say(s), just keep drinking water. Somehow, I don’t know how that equates to this injury, but we’ll see how it goes tomorrow.”

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NEW YORK — Lonnie Walker IV has had quite the NBA journey up to this point in his career when he is getting crucial buckets for the Brooklyn Nets. He went from being the 18th overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft to getting one-year deals in back-to-back seasons from the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn currently. He hasn’t let his recent contracts deter him from getting better as a player though.

“I really put a lot of time and effort into the game,” Walker said after scoring 21 points in Wednesday’s 100-93 win over the Los Angeles Clippers, a performance that has now given Walker his seventh straight game of scoring in double figures. Walker has been such a value for the Nets as he is now averaging 15.5 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game while shooting 52.4% from the field and 43.3% from deep. Walker says that it’s a testament to his work ethic.

“I sacrifice a lot of time and effort into the game. So, what you put in is what you’re going to get out of it. And, I think my work ethic is starting to show just how hard I’ve been working on the court,” Walker said. He was also the catalyst of a Brooklyn bench that scored 45 of the 100 points that the Nets scored as a team as he was seemingly the only player on the roster who had little trouble getting whatever he wanted.

“So, very composed, just a lot of growth. And, truthfully, a lot of confidence from last year,” Walker said, alluding to the experience that he gained from going to the Western Conference Finals last season with the Los Angeles Lakers. It’s clear that experience has been valuable for Walker as he is playing his best basketball right now.

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