Brooklyn Nets: Player grades from win over East heavyweight Celtics
By Phil Watson
PG. Brooklyn Nets. D'ANGELO RUSSELL. A. 37 MIN, 34 PTS, 13-for-26 (7-for-13), 1-for-2 FT, 5 REB (1 ORB), 7 AST, 2 PF, 1 STL, 5 TO, 1 BLK, +2
D’Angelo Russell controlled the game for the Brooklyn Nets like a maestro Monday night, finding a terrific balance between getting his own looks and creating for teammates.
His third quarter was just ridiculous: 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting, including 4-of-6 from 3-point range while also handing out four assists.
Russell made some mistakes late in the game, turning the ball over on successive possessions. One of those when he made an ill-advised decision to drive to the basket and dribbled the ball off his foot as coach Kenny Atkinson was imploring the team to slow down and run clock.
But he’s averaging 22.6 points and 7.7 assists over his last seven games and has scored at least 20 points in six of those games as he’s put together one of the most consistent stretches of good basketball in his career.
B-. 35 MIN, 13 PTS, 4-for-10 (1-for-6), 4-for-4, 8 REB, 3 AST, 1 STL, 3 TO, +10. SG/SF. Brooklyn Nets. JOE HARRIS
The Boston Celtics had a very clear plan — run Joe Harris off the 3-point line as often as possible. It worked for the most part; Harris had a hard time getting clean looks from deep and made just one of six attempts.
But he found other ways to contribute, cleaning up the glass for eight rebounds and dishing out three assists.
Harris does need to check his tendency to get himself in the air before discovering he has nowhere to go with the ball, something that directly led to two of his three turnovers on the night.