A.J. Lawson’s 37 leads Long Island Nets over Toronto Raptors, 128-112

A.J. Lawson exploded for 37 in front of his hometown fans in Toronto but Jacky Cui’s debut proved disappointing in Long Island Nets win over Raptors 905.

The Long Island Nets’ first game of the week didn’t come until Friday night when they traveled to Toronto to take on the Raptors 905. For one Net, A.J. Lawson, the 6’6” wing, it was a homecoming and the 24-year-old made the most of it, scoring 37 points and leading Long Island to their second win of the season, 128-112.

It was a complete team win with big contributions from the starters and bench. In all, seven of the G League Nets wound up in double figures. One who didn’t though was Jacky Cui the Nets two-way who had only three points on 1-of-5 shooting in his 16-minute Long Island debut. More on that later.

This game was a tale of two halves for Long Island. The first quarter was about as explosive as it comes with each team not allowing the other to pull away. Heading into the second, Long Island lost their footing a little bit, and allowed Toronto to develop their biggest lead of the game. At halftime, it was 66-59 in favor of Toronto.

However, everything changed in the third. Long Island officially broke what was a pretty close game open. Heading into the fourth, Long Island led Toronto, 97-83. From this point on, Long Island never looked back as the offense exploded for 31 finishing with 128 points.

There were quite a few key players in Long Island’s victory on Friday night. None were bigger than the performance of Lawson, who played 52 games for the Dallas Mavericks last season.

Earlier in the week, Lawson told NetsDaily how he was looking forward to playing in front of his family and friends in Toronto, and it’s easy to see why. He had his parents, grandmother, and close friends in the stands tonight, and apparently it made all the difference.

It was a career game for Lawson. He shot 11-of-24 overall and 5-of-13 from deep. Lawson also led Long island in other categories as well. He was tied with Dariq Whitehead for the team lead in rebounds with seven, and even picked up three steals.

Long Island also saw a solid performance by Kendall Brown, who was second in scoring behind Lawson, picking up 21 points. After a shaky few games, Killian Hayes also got back on track scoring 17 points, handing out six assists, registering four steals and even hitting 3-of-5 from deep..

Despite all the positive performances tonight, one didn’t meet expectations, including his own, was that of Cui. Earlier in the week, Cui told NetsDaily how his main goal was to improve every time he stepped on the court, adding he hoped he could record “10 points a couple of rebounds and a couple of assists” In his debut with Long Island,

He finished the game with three points, connecting from deep for one shot. He also got blocked in a big way by Toronto’s Ulrich Chomche later on in the game. The block led to an altercation with each player getting hit with a technical foul. He had the looks various times; he just was not able to get the shots to go down.

Cui was, without a doubt, frustrated at his performance tonight. However, on a positive note, this was only his first game for Long Island. The game was televised back in China.

Whitehead had a mixed performance tonight, finishing with seven points, seven rebounds and seven assists as well as two steals and a block, the assist and rebound totals were team highs in the rebound and rebound categories. Shooting, though, continued to be an issue. The 6’7” 20-year-old shot only 3-of-13, 1-of-6 from deep.

Long Island Nets head coach Mfon Udofia missed the game for personal reason. Associate head coach Shawn Sword, a veteran of Canadian basketball handled the duties.

Next Up

Long Island plays again on Sunday when they remain in Canada to once again square off with the Toronto Raptors 905. Despite the slow start this season, Long Island is now back in the win column, sitting at 2-3. Sunday’s game can be streamed live on the Long Island Nets and NBA G-League website.

• Boxscore: Long Island Nets 128, Raptors 905 – G League