(Photograph credit score: John Jones-Imagn Pictures)
Cameron Johnson is having the perfect season of his six-year profession, delivering performances that not solely assist the Brooklyn Nets win some video games, however maybe enhance their commerce worth as properly.
As rumors proceed to swirl round Johnson, his subsequent alternative to supply one other large sport is Saturday night time, when the Nets host the Utah Jazz, the second-worst workforce within the Western Convention.
Johnson is averaging 19.2 factors on 48.9 % capturing from the sector and 43.1 % capturing from 3. All of these marks can be profession single-season highs. He has scored at the very least 20 in 5 of his final six video games and has averaged 24.2 factors per sport on 49.4 % capturing throughout that span. He is additionally capturing 50.9 % over his final 21 video games.
Johnson scored 22 in Brooklyn’s 130-101 dwelling loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday after Dennis Schroder was traded to the Golden State Warriors for 3 second-round picks. He adopted that up Thursday with 33 factors in a 101-94 win over the Toronto Raptors. Johnson’s large sport got here when no teammate scored greater than 12 and the Nets shot 40.2 %, their third-lowest mark this season.
“It’s nearly attempting to win the sport,” Johnson mentioned after additionally gathering 10 rebounds and 6 assists. “We did not have a very good feeling after that sport towards Cleveland, so we needed to ensure we got here right here and received a double. To win like this (is big).”
Nevertheless, Brooklyn has misplaced six of its final eight video games.
Utah at present has higher lottery odds than the 11-16 Nets as its 6-20 mark is third-worst within the NBA behind the Washington Wizards and New Orleans Pelicans.
The Jazz are 6-14 since debuting with six straight losses and are looking for back-to-back wins for the primary time since April 11-12 of final season.
After permitting 144 factors in Monday’s 37-point loss to the Clippers in Los Angeles, Utah earned a 126-119 highway victory over the Detroit Pistons on Thursday, enhancing them to 5- 6 by awarding lower than 120 factors.
Utah’s victory was a lot nearer than coach Will Hardy would have hoped, because the Jazz outscored Detroit 48-19 within the first quarter (after being outscored 44-20 within the first quarter on Monday).
The victory ended up being nearer because the Jazz dedicated 24 of their 27 turnovers within the remaining three quarters, their tenth sport with at the very least 20 giveaways. Utah’s victory additionally noticed Jordan Clarkson ejected for shoving Paul Reed within the third quarter.
“It was tremendous bodily, edgy, ugly, imply,” Hardy mentioned. “There are turnovers, fouls, fights, there’s a degree of stress within the sport and within the enviornment that we haven’t actually seen this yr.”
Collin Sexton simply scored a season-high 30 factors, ending a streak of seven straight video games the place he was held below 20. The Jazz additionally see enchancment from second-year guard Keyonte George, who averaging 18.1 factors over his final seven years after ending with 28 in Detroit.
–Area degree media
