D’Angelo Russell found more openings against the Phoenix Suns and dropped an 18-point, eight-rebound, six-assist night on Sunday. Solid.
But he was just 6-for-18 from the floor and turned the ball over a whopping seven times. Less than optimal.
Because I’ve noticed this several times of late, Russell needs to understand that a bounce pass to a big man who’s a foot-and-a-half away is not a pocket pass so much as it is a sock pass. Difficult for a big to go down and have to field a ball like a shortstop when in a congested lane.
DeMarre Carroll‘s yo-yo of a season hit a downward ebb Sunday night as he was held scoreless in a game for the second time this season.
The other was an 0-for-7 clunker in the Brooklyn Nets’ Nov. 21 loss on the road to the Dallas Mavericks.
After going 0-for-4 on Sunday and missing both 3-pointers, Carroll is shooting just 35.2 percent on the season — the second-worst on the team ahead of only Allen Crabbe’s 34.3 percent mark — and is now at 30.7 percent from 3-point range, Brooklyn’s lowest mark among players with at least one attempt per game.
Consistency is evading Carroll after an injury-marred start to the season, when he sat the first 11 games after having a surgical procedure on his right ankle on the eve of the season opener.