Brooklyn Nets: Player grades from a Halloween thriller

Joe Harris found his balance Wednesday night and it helped the Brooklyn Nets in a variety of ways.

The top shooter in the NBA last season on drives, Harris had been driving less frequently through the first seven games, but rediscovered the balance in his offensive game at a crucial time.

Harris was 4-for-7 at the rim Wednesday night and 4-for-7 from 3-point range en route to a season-high 23 points, while logging a career-high 41 minutes.

He is at his most dangerous offensively when his defender has to choose between closing out and opening the door for Harris to blow by on the dribble or respecting the drive and giving Harris space to shoot over the top.

Harris also had one of the biggest offensive rebounds of the night for Brooklyn, keeping alive a missed Ed Davis free throw that Davis eventually converted into an inverse three-point play with a putback dunk near the end of the third quarter that got the Nets to within six points at the break.

Caris LeVert also put in a career-high workload Wednesday night, topping his previous career-high of 35 minutes by a full five.

He had a hot first half, going 6-for-9 and scoring 13 points to keep Brooklyn afloat as the game slipped away from them after they grabbed an early lead.

His second half wasn’t as noteworthy on the scoreboard, but LeVert did a nice job of keeping the ball moving, finding open shooters and scrambling the Detroit defense with his ability to penetrate at will.

Defensively, he was active, including a pretty pick of Blake Griffin‘s pocket while coming in as a help defender as Griffin was beginning his back-down move against Rondae Hollis-Jefferson in the third quarter. That set up Spencer Dinwiddie for a 3-point opportunity on which he was fouled.

Not an actual assist on the scoresheet, but LeVert definitely set up the three points Dinwiddie converted at the line.