Kendall Brown, Long Island’s 6’7” wing, returned to Indianapolis where he played last season and scored 27 points but the short-handed Nets lost to the Mad Ants.
One step forward, two steps back. That’s how it felt watching the Long Island Nets take on the Indiana Mad Ants on Sunday evening.
Long Island returned to the court to start a three-game road trip in Indiana against the Mad Ants. Despite being up by 16 points at one point, Long Island would fall to Indiana by 16 in the end.
That’s the bad news, along with the fact that all three two-way players — Tyrese Martin, Reece Beekman and Tosan Evbuomwan — as well as Dariq Whitehead were with Brooklyn. The three two-ways produced 25 points. Good for them, but not for Long Island.
On a positive note, the game marked the return of Drew Timme and Killian Hayes after missing Thursday’s game at home. Both players returned in a big way, combining for almost 40 points. Individually, it was a big game for Kendall Brown, who was drafted by the Indiana Pacers two years ago and played most of his first two seasons with the Mad Ants. He put up 27 on the night.
Timme finished with another double-double, picking up 20 points and 12 rebounds. He also added to his already impressive stat sheet with two assists, one steal, and one block. However, this certainly was not Timme’s best game shooting the ball as he only connected on nine of his 23 shot attempts, and missed both his attempts from beyond the arc. Timme also led the team in turnovers with five.
As for Hayes, he once again flirted with a triple-double. The 23-year-old finished the game with 18 points, six rebounds, and nine assists. Hayes even picked up a block.
Brown, the 6’7” 21-year-old shooting guard who played 22 games, regular season and playoffs, for the Pacers last season, once again led the team in scoring, continuing his hot play with 27 points on 11-of-15 shooting. Brown also picked up four rebounds, six assists, and four steals. The Baylor product has been a bright spot for the Nets all season long, averaging 17.5 points a game while shooting 40.4% from deep.
Tyson Etienne was second on the team in points with 22. Etienne also added to that with one rebound, seven assists, and one steal.
Despite starting great in the first quarter, Trevon Scott fizzled out big time. After scoring 10 in the first, Scott would go on to find the basket only one more time, finishing with 13 points. Scott also picked up eight rebounds, one assist, and one steal.
The Long Island bench combined for only eight points, two points each from Jordan Minor, Terry Roberts, Mark Armstrong, and Kevin Obanor. However, that’s not saying too much as the bench didn’t see much time at all in the game today, with the starters all going over 30-40 minutes each.
The first quarter was all Long Island. Long Island got off to an incredibly hot start, at one point leading 19-9. The first quarter ended with Long Island up 35-23. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the second quarter as that’s when everything began to fall apart. The Long Island Nets who were once up by 16, entered the half trailing, 63-55.
The third quarter was more of a close contest for Long Island, but try as they might, they weren’t able to catch up to the Mad Ants, entering the fourth, 95-83. Indiana ran away with this game in the fourth, giving themselves a double-digit lead and not looking back as Long Island would fall to Indiana by 16.
For the Mad Ants, Ishmael Lane finished 10-for-10 from the field while scoring a career-high 28 points. Kyle Mangas, RayJ Dennis and Dakota Mathias each finished with 20+ points.
Next Up
The Long Island Nets (2-4) look to get back in the win column as the regular season begins to ramp up, when they continue their road trip on Tuesday night and face off with the Grand Rapids Gold. The game tips off at 7:00 p.m. ET and can be watched on ESPN+.