Brooklyn Nets: Player grades from near miss in New Orleans

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B. 22 MIN, 11 PTS, 3-for-9 (2-for-6), 5 REB, 2 AST, 3 PF, 1 STL, 1 TO, 1 BLK, +10. SG/SF. Brooklyn Nets. ALLEN CRABBE

Allen Crabbe returned from a sprained left ankle in Brooklyn’s second game of the season and promptly knocked down his first two shots, a long 3-pointer and a mid-range jumper.

Since then, however, the struggle has been real. Crabbe was 3-for-9 Friday night — an improvement over his bagel-for-7 in Cleveland — and is just 5-for-27 since hitting those first two attempts against the New York Knicks.

But what Crabbe is doing well is lots of the other things. He’s rebounding and defending well, with five boards in 22 minutes Friday night as well as a help-side blocked shot on Julius Randle while digging into the post.

Crabbe is too good a shooter to remain in this sort of funk for an extended period, but he is not letting the cold spell affect the rest of his game.

B+. 20 MIN, 5 PTS, 2-for-6, 11 REB (5 ORB), 1 AST, 3 PF, 1 TO, 1 BLK, +5. C. Brooklyn Nets. ED DAVIS

Ed Davis was part of the outstanding work the Brooklyn Nets did defensively against Anthony Davis and once again, Ed Davis was a maniac on the glass with 11 rebounds in only 20 minutes.

That improved his already-ludicrous rebounding rate per 36 minutes to 18.8 and he remains the team’s top rebounder overall with 9.2 per game.

It’s hard to knock Davis for the late-game technical foul assessed when he defended the Brooklyn huddle from an intruding Solomon Hill. That is a feisty edge the Nets haven’t shown in recent years.

Davis will get a fine for drawing an unsportsmanlike technical, but the NBA should also look at Hill’s embellishment of the contact he drew from Davis in the incident.

If a point of emphasis of late has been to try to cut down the flopping in play, it stands to reason a Vlade Divac-esque flop in a dead ball situation should draw similar scrutiny.