A tough night for the Long Island Nets, but once again Kendall Brown, a 6’7” wing, did well, scoring 28 to lead all scorers.
The Long Island Nets met the College Park Skyhawks on Tuesday night hoping to add to their two wins so far this season. No such luck as the 5-3 Skyhawks ran away from Long Island, 122-105. It was Long Island’s worst offensive performance in the early going.
From deep, Long Island only connected on six of their 34 three-point attempts, making only 17% of their shots from 3-point land. No player on Long Island connected on more than one three for the entire game. AJ Lawson, who had a career game a couple of games ago, hitting five from deep, went 1-of-8 Tuesday.
There were some positives for head coach Mfon Udofia and for the Nets organization.
The game itself was more of a clean game for Long Island. The Nets only picked up seven turnovers in total, compared to the 20+ they had last game. However, in the first half, Long Island gave up a lot of easy shots to College Park, and it showed on the scoreboard. At halftime, College Park led by 18, 65-47.
Long Island got it close in the third. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t last long. The Long Island defense once again allowed College Park to pull away, and this time, College Park didn’t look back. Off of strong play from their entire team, including six players who had double digits in points, the Skyhawks would put the Nets away with ease. Long Island is now 2-5.
One of the biggest positives that came out of this game was another strong performance by Kendall Brown, a 21-year-old 6’7” wing who was taken late in the second two years ago by the Indiana Pacers. Brown has been one of Long Island’s key players for the better part of the season so far, but tonight, he took a huge step forward in his ultimate goal of once again returning to the NBA.
Brown, who played 21 games with the Pacers the last two years as a two-way, finished the contest with a team and game-leading 28 on 11-of-17 shooting including 1-of-4 from deep. Brown, who started at the 5 in a small ball lineup, picked up 10 rebounds, which also led Long Island, to secure his first double-double of the season. He shared the wealth as well, finishing with five assists, second only to Killian Hayes who had a whopping 10 assists in tonight’s game.
Hayes, 23, also picked up another double-double. The French point guard scored 15 points and came close to a triple-double, securing seven rebounds and recording three steals. After hitting 5-of-10 threes in the previous two games, the 6’5” point guard finished 1-of-6.
Despite his poor performance from deep, the 6’6” Lawson was second on the team in points, with 22.
One glaring issue for Long Island has been the performance of their big man, Patrick Gardner. Gardner once again had a rough showing, only securing three rebounds, and picking up only five points. A lot of the smaller players on College Park had no issues getting around the 6’11” Gardner to the basket.
Not having Dariq Whitehead who was called up to Brooklyn Sunday hurt Long Island in this game either. The Nets were also without Jacky Cui, who’s also in Arizona with Brooklyn, and Jaylen Martin who went down last game with a right knee injury. After being stretchered off the court in suburban Toronto, Martin was reportedly sent back to New York for further tests. No word on his situation.
Udofia coached the team in Georgia after missing both games in Canada for personal reasons. Associate head coach, Shawn Sword, had handled the duties while Udofia was gone.
Next Up
Long Island will travel to North Carolina on Friday, to play the Greensboro Swarm, the Hornets affiliate. The game tips off at 4:00 p.m. ET and can be streamed on the Long Island Nets and NBA G-League websites.