After losing seven games over their latest eight tries, the Brooklyn Nets managed to get themselves back into the win column Saturday night, besting the visiting Houston Rockets by a final score of 106-104.
After getting off to a hot 35-15 start in the first period, over the final 36 minutes of regulation Ime Udoka's squad continuously chipped away at the Nets' commanding lead, even bringing their deficit to just one point with just seven seconds remaining in the fourth period.
Fortunately, the heroics of Cam Thomas proved too much for the Rockets to overcome and, ultimately, gave way to Jacque Vaughn and co.'s first win since January 19.
Inserted back into the starting lineup following a stretch of rather inconsistent playing time, Brooklyn's 22-year-old rising stud went on to drop one of his best offensive showings of the season with 37-points on 57.9 percent from the floor and 50.0 percent from distance.
Following the contest, Thomas was asked how he was able to "execute" at such a high level after having endured weeks of random usage rates and minute distributions.
In response, he noted that "being myself" was what has kept him locked in through such adversity.
Cam Thomas talks huge 37-point night in Nets win over Rockets
"Being myself. Trusting my work, trusting myself. I know the guys trust me to make the right play, whether it's get the bucket or find them. In the second half, they started doubling me a lot, trying to get the ball out of my hands so I just made the right plays. Guys made shots. Even when they miss I'm going to keep passing to them because that's the right play to make but I just got to read the game because most teams are going to start doubling now so I just got to get used to it."Cam Thomas
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) January 28, 2024
Despite it being his third-highest scoring output of the season, Thomas made it clear that his distributing skills and abilities to play off his teammates helped pave the way to his mesmerizing performance against Houston.
Though he only finished with 3 dimes, the combo guard collected numerous hockey assists on the night and was able to make the right reads to help create cleaner scoring opportunities for both himself as well as his teammates.
Saturday night marked his second 30-plus point performance over the club's last five games, with the previous one coming in a major win over the Los Angeles Lakers.
Hopefully Thomas can continue to produce at this type of level moving forward as the Nets look to make a second-half push for their sixth consecutive playoff berth.
At 18-27 and with a separation of just two wins between them and the 12-seeded Toronto Raptors, they're going to need him to keep this type of momentum going in order to achieve such a goal.