Brooklyn Nets Morning Dish: Joe Harris signs on to Hoops2o initiative

We’re talking philanthropy in Tuesday’s Brooklyn Nets Morning Dish, as Joe Harris joins some former Virginia teammates to fund clean water efforts in Africa.

In a Tuesday edition of the Brooklyn Nets Morning Dish that follows a disheartening blowout loss at the Garden, we were looking for some good news and thanks to Joe Harris, we didn’t have to look far.

Harris, the Nets small forward, has joined forces with former University of Virginia teammates Malcolm Brogdon and Justin Anderson as well as two other NBA players to form a group called Hoops2o, an initiative to raise money to help efforts to bring clean water to East Africa.

According to UVAToday, Brogdon announced the launch of the project Monday — patterned after the “Waterboys” drive started by former Virginia football star Chris Long — to build wells in the impoverished region.

Brogdon, who is now with the Milwaukee Bucks, and Anderson, now a member of the Atlanta Hawks, played together with Harris at Virginia in 2013-14, when Harris was a senior and Brogdon and Anderson were sophomores.

Harris didn’t hesitate when Brogdon asked him to join the project.

"“Malcolm is really passionate about it, so how could you not be, too? It’s an amazing cause. You’re raising a lot of money and awareness for something that so many people take for granted.“I was more than willing to take part in it and really excited about it.”"

Along with Garrett Temple of the Memphis Grizzlies and Anthony Tolliver of the Minnesota Timberwolves, the group hopes to raise $225,000 to build five solar-powered wells by the end of this NBA season — a drive dubbed “The Starting Five.”

To kick off the effort, the Starting Five has launched a “Ballin’ for Buckets Campaign.” Fans can pledge a dollar amount for a statistical category and a player of their choice. To make a pledge or get more information, you can go to the Hoops2o website.

Kenny called it, almost

Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors shook off his early-season shooting slump in grand fashion Monday night, breaking teammate Stephen Curry‘s NBA single-game record by burying 14 3-pointers in a 149-124 win over the Chicago Bulls.

Thompson had just a ridiculous night, with 38 points and 10 3s by halftime as the Warriors had opened not just a can, but an entire case of cans, on Chicago to the tune of a 92-50 lead.

Thompson finished with 52 points in just 26 minutes in the romp. That followed a 1-for-5 performance from long range against the Brooklyn Nets in Golden State’s 120-114 win on Sunday.

Before that game, per Brian Mahoney of The Associated Press, Nets coach Kenny Atkinson thought Thompson might be nearing a breakout.

"“I think my analytic mind would say it’s time for him to go off.”"

Atkinson was just a day off.

In the fun with early-season stats department, Thompson is now shooting 31.7 percent from 3-point range on the season after Monday’s 14-for-24 effort. He went into Chicago at 13.9 percent, just 5-for-36. Yeah, dude almost quadrupled his season total for makes in one game. Crazy.

Warriors GM gives Sean high … ummm … marks

Going into Sunday’s game against the Brooklyn Nets, the Golden State Warriors were generous with their praise of their opponents, talking about how the Nets are on their way to becoming a good team and about how hard they play, right to the end.

Brooklyn proved that talk correct, digging a 19-point hole and nearly climbing all the way out of it, at one point holding Golden State scoreless on nine consecutive possessions as they put together a game-changing run to get to within two of the two-time defending champs with 1:55 to go.

But the star-studded Warriors turned to two of those big names to end the Brooklyn run, as Kevin Durant hit a jumper and Stephen Curry followed with a 3-pointer to push the lead back to seven.

Afterward, Warriors general manager Bob Myers had high praise for his opposite number, Nets GM Sean Marks, telling Brian Lewis of the New York Post:

"“I think they’re on their way. They play in a great city and Sean is smart. They’re in a position now with their picks and cap space where they’ll be able to make some change and it’ll probably be positive. Sean’s smart and he’ll do a good job.”"

Hot deep shooting by design

The Brooklyn Nets entered Monday night’s game against the New York Knicks as the second-best 3-point shooting in the NBA, putting that 5-for-27 clank fest against the Detroit Pistons in the opener far into the rear view mirror.

After going 20-for-42 against the Golden State Warriors on Sunday, Brooklyn had improved its 3-point percentage to 41.0.

Joe Harris, who was the NBA’s best 3-point shooter after the All-Star break last season at 47.1 percent, said via Nets Daily that their shooting of late fit their style.

"“We’ve been shooting it well from 3. That’s the way that we want to play. It’s tough. You shoot that well, you expect to be winning games, but obviously they’re a great shooting team on the other end and that’s what it’s going to be like most night.“So it’s going to take other stuff, the hustle plays, the stops defensively. We can’t just rely on 3-point shooting.”"

That lesson was applied in a big way Monday in Brooklyn’s 115-96 loss to the Knicks. After hitting four of their first six attempts from deep, the Nets were just 7-for-32 the rest of the way and didn’t do much of that “other stuff,” either.

The 11-for-38 performance against New York (28.9 percent) dropped the Nets from second to fifth in the league as their season percentage dipped to 39.1 percent. The Indiana Pacers have the best mark in the NBA at 43 percent.