Ed Davis made the most of his minutes Sunday night with seven rebounds in 17 minutes against an opponent in the Golden State Warriors that is a tough matchup for him.
Golden State tends to play small, particularly with its second unit, which can leave Davis in defensive mismatch situations against quicker opponents.
He compensated fairly well for that while he was in and remains the Nets’ leading rebounder at 8.8 per game while averaging just 17.7 minutes a night.
I mean when you get seven boards in 17 minutes and it drops your per-36 minutes average to only 18.0, you’re doing something right most of the time.
Shabazz Napier returned to Earth Sunday night after his white-hot 16 points in 15 minutes in New Orleans Friday night.
Napier moved the ball well, but was guilty of a couple of heat-check shots on a night when the furnace was clearly not working.
The knock on Napier throughout his career has been a tendency to try to maybe do a little more than he’s capable of doing and he showed that on a handful of trips Sunday night.
He’s definitely a spark and, when the second unit took the floor in the first quarter, was the only effective offensive player for an uncomfortably long time.
Napier just needs to be more cognizant at times of that fine line that separates “supremely confident” and “unnecessary bravado.”