Nets star Cam Thomas issues strong statement on monster game against Lakers

Friday night, the Brooklyn Nets halted their losing streak at four, as they took game one of their two-game west coast trip in a bout against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Jacque Vaughn's squad put on a truly inspiring offensive performance against LeBron James and company, as they saw seven of their players drop in double-digit scoring efforts and shot 52.6 percent from the field. And while franchise cornerstone Mikal Bridges is generally the one leading the charge for Brooklyn, in this contest it was a fired-up Cam Thomas who paved the way to victory.

Of late, the third-year guard has seen both his role and playing time reduce within the rotation, as he had been averaging just north of 20 minutes per game for nearly the last month.

To some, their losing ways over this span (1-9 over a ten-game stretch) was a clear indicator that the Nets should strongly consider utilizing Thomas as a rotational staple rather than a mere tertiary commodity, and, against the Lakers, they did just that, which wound up leading to his mesmerizing performance.

Though a demotion within the pecking can often negatively impact a player's psyche, following the contest the 22-year-old opened up about what his specific mentality was coming in.

Cam Thomas dishes on mentality after monster performance for Nets

"Just go out and dominate, play my game, don't overthink it because I know every team guards me differently. Sometimes, I don't think but there's a little thinking into it -- do I have to pass, do I have to get it going first and then pass? Today they let me get going early and then the paths opened up for me, I got teammates open shots so I feel like I played a pretty good game, a pretty complete game today. I just got to keep it up."

- Cam Thomas

In just shy of 33 minutes, Thomas went on to lead all scorers in points with 33 while shooting a highly efficient 72.2 percent from the floor and 57.1 percent from deep. The guard would also register 4 assists, 3 boards, and a steal, though the most important outcome of his play was that the Nets went on to notch their first win since January 5.

If Thomas can keep playing like this, fans should expect the team to come across plenty of more triumphs moving forward.