The Brooklyn Nets won their 1st game Friday night since losing leading scorer Caris LeVert to an injury, snapping a 3-game losing streak in the process.
The Brooklyn Nets showed Friday night there can be success without Caris LeVert, with point guards Spencer Dinwiddie and D’Angelo Russell stepping up with big performances and the defense buoyed by the return of Jarrett Allen from a two-game absence.
The Nets dropped the Washington Wizards at Capital One Arena in D.C. Friday night 115-104, their first win since LeVert was injured on Monday and a win that also broke a three-game losing skid for Brooklyn (7-9).
While they had another less-than-stellar shooting performance, the Nets got it done at the defensive end in a way they hadn’t during the last three games, holding Washington (5-10) to 42.5 percent shooting (37-for-87) overall and 3-for-17 (17.6 percent) from 3-point range.
Brooklyn wasn’t a lot better, shooting 42.2 percent (38-for-90) while hitting 9-of-33 (27.3 percent) from deep.
The Nets were outscored in the paint 52-44 and on the offensive glass 16-14, but had a big 13-2 edge in fast-break points and outscored the Wizards off turnovers by a 19-8 margin.
Of the 12 players in uniform for Brooklyn, only Kenneth Faried took a DNP-CD.
Rondae Hollis-Jefferson was inactive with a right ankle sprain, LeVert (dislocated right foot) and Treveon Graham (left hamstring strain) remained inactive with their injuries and Theo Pinson and Alan Williams are with the Long Island Nets in the NBA G League.
Here are the grades from the Brooklyn Nets’ victory on Friday: