3 Takeaways after Brooklyn Nets fizzle out vs Boston Celtics

Day’Ron Sharpe and Keon Johnson had it going last night, but most others didn’t.

Even with the Brooklyn Nets playing the Boston Celtics just a few hours removed from St Patrick’s Day, they can’t get away with blaming the “luck of the Irish” for their loss last night.

With the Celtics playing their first game all season without both Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, one could have even argued that fortune was on Brooklyn’s side. Well, that is, unless you’re solely rooting for losses at this point. No judgment if that’s the case.

Nevertheless, Brooklyn fell last night by a 104-96 score, dropping their fourth (and thankfully) final game vs the Celtics this season. Playing ruthless defense made it a contest early, but their cold shooting down the stretch made it end in an all-too-familiar fashion. Here’s everything else that went down in between.

Can’t Say Enough About Sharpe’s Growth

Anytime we’ve needed a positive charge here in the second half of the season, Day’Ron Sharpe’s been the go-to plug-in off the bench. As most things do in Brooklyn nowadays, everything started for him last night at the defensive end.

After Boston began by punishing the Nets inside with Al Horford and Kristaps Porzingis, who found easy paint points after Holiday and White worked the ball through Brooklyn’s blitzes, Sharpe came in to stop the bleeding. Poised as can be, the four year man navigated around picks to pressure both ball-handlers and rollers consistently on Boston’s high screen actions.

Brooklyn’s done well to “hedge” like this on screens all year as a unit, largely to their defense’s benefit, but nobody was better at it last night than Sharpe.

It not like Nic Claxton hasn’t been in on this brand of defense this year, or wasn’t last night. But with Clax on the floor, Boston consistently switched him on to the ball-handler so that Porzingis could simply attack shorter defenders in the post. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t, but it almost always took Claxton out of the play.

With Sharpe though, they challenged his feet by going downhill immediately after screens. More often than not, he eagerly accepted.

Then, the offense arrived. Although Sharpe fumbled a few mismatches in the post last night, he still finished with nine points on 4-of-6 shooting. He also pushed in transition, stretched the floor, and assisted on one bucket, bringing all the little things you like to see from a modern big to the table.

I’ve raved about Sharpe’s development before, but neglecting to do so tonight would be a disservice considering the amount of tools he put on display. I also have no doubt he made a few Boston fans want to pull their hair out with his two triples alone in the first. He gets a few extra points for that alone as well.

Keon Johnson is Raising his Ceiling

There’s no shortage of data and eye tests illustrating Keon Johnson’s athleticism, ability to pressure the ball, closeout from northwest to southeast, and find teammates in the halfcourt. If the man were on trial for any of the aforementioned, my twitter feed would have him convicted as a hustle guy within a day.

But while energy and effort are one thing, touch is another, and it’s something that’s evaded Johnson at times this year. While he’s good for one or two triples a game, Johnson doesn’t always get them efficiently. As a guard who primarily operates around the perimeter, that deep shot is the main thing missing from his game.

However, with the season winding down and him becoming an unrestricted free agent this summer, he seems to have found it in the nick of time.

In Johnson’s last nine games, and including tonight where he went 3-of-6 from deep, the combo guard is hitting shots from beyond the arc at a 43.9% clip on 4.6 attempts per game. Before that, he shot at a mere 28.9% clip. As a result, he’s raised his percentage for the season to 30.7%.

While that’s nothing crazy, getting out of the 20s is a milestone. But more importantly, it puts a respectable percentage (34-36%) within reach by the end of the year, and by extension, more money in his pocket.

A Changing of the Guards…With Forwards

Lineup fluidity is just as much of a hallmark of the Jordi Fernández experience as ball pressure and a 3-point-heavy attack is. However, anytime a new player overtakes a rotation mainstay’s position, that’s of note.

Last night, that was Maxwell Lewis, who checked in ahead of Jalen Wilson and played far more minutes than him, logging 19 to Wilson’s seven.

While Lewis only finished with three points while shooting 1-of-4 from the field, he brought strong perimeter defense during his burn, joining Sharpe as one of just four players to finish with positive plus/minus scores for the evening. In making his lone field goal of the night, he also illustrated an ability to create for himself, which we’ve yet to see from Wilson.

Wilson played relatively well over the weekend, contributing with 15 and then 13 points, each time shooting an identical 5-of-11 from the field. But most important figure for a Nets player this season is still age. If two guys bring similar production, and one is two years younger than the other, it’s an advantage considering the team’s trajectory.

Lewis taking Wilson’s spot last night still might be nothing. As I said before, Fernández mentioned that he wouldn’t guarantee minutes, starting spots, rotation spots, or anything to anyone as early as his opening press conference this year. But it also might be something. Right now, we’ll just call it something to watch.