Brooklyn Nets: 3 takeaways from a bad loss to Bulls

1. Crabbe appears to have not missed a beat

Given how poorly Allen Crabbe shot the ball after he returned from a preseason ankle injury, it would have been understandable to have concerns about how Crabbe would perform after missing nearly two months with a right knee injury.

But it appears Crabbe has picked up right where he left off, when he was one of the hottest shooters in the NBA at the time he banged the knee onto the floor in a Dec. 12 road win over the Philadelphia 76ers.

In his second game back on Friday against the Chicago Bulls, Crabbe played 21 minutes off the bench and dropped 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting, hitting 5-of-9 from 3.

He’s played 34 minutes in his two games back and has 24 points on 9-of-17 shooting and has hit 6-of-11 from deep.

Crabbe missed the final two preseason games and the regular-season opener after spraining his left ankle during the preseason and he struggled — putting it mildly — finding the rhythm on his shot upon his return.

In his first 13 games this season, Crabbe averaged just 6.5 points in 23.3 minutes per game on 25.2 percent shooting overall, making just 26.9 percent on 5.2 3-points attempts a game.

He started to warm up over his next 15 games before his knee injury, averaging 12.0 points in 28.6 minutes a night and shooting 41.1 percent overall and 46.5 percent on 6.7 deep attempts per game.

In the final four games before he was hurt, Crabbe hit 55.9 percent from deep on 8.5 attempts per game and shot 48.8 percent overall, averaging 17.5 points per game in that span.

In a disjointed season, Crabbe is now averaging 9.6 points and 3.3 rebounds in 25.5 minutes per game, shooting 35.5 percent overall and 39.7 percent from 3 on 6.0 attempts a game.

With the Nets getting healthier, Crabbe may be destined to finish the season in a reserve role and if he can provide the sort of shooting he’s shown in his first two games back, it could be a big boost for Brooklyn.