A nasty ankle sprain suffered in opposition to the Sacramento Kings on Jan. 27 compelled Noah Clowney to overlook 15 straight video games, his longest inactive stretch of the season.
Brooklyn clearly missed Clowney’s positional versatility over that stretch. The second-year ahead lastly returned to the courtroom final Saturday in opposition to Charlotte. His efficiency was understandably tough.
Clowney performed 18 minutes off the bench within the Nets’ 105-102 loss at Spectrum Middle and missed all 5 of his shot makes an attempt. It was his second scoreless look of the season, and positively not the type of return sport anybody needs.
Nonetheless, Monday’s matchup in opposition to the Los Angeles Lakers at Barclays Middle was a very totally different story for Clowney. He scored 19 factors, went 5-of-11 from the sphere, knocked down three 3-pointers and picked up 5 rebounds in just below 23 minutes.
Whereas it took him a sport to get going once more, the ankle seems to be high quality. As an alternative of urgent, he centered on doing his job in opposition to the Lakers, and every thing else fell into place.
“I think tonight was a big step in the right direction for me getting back into the rhythm I’d been playing with,” Clowney mentioned. “I think I was playing pretty well before I went down. And then when I went down, my first game back wasn’t super strong. So, I wanted to get a win more than anything, and I ended up having a good performance in that process.”
It additionally helps that head coach Jordi Fernandez doesn’t restrict what he, or some other younger gamers on the roster, are allowed to do on the courtroom. He permits them to play freely on the courtroom. For a shooter like Clowney, it’s simpler to regain rhythm while you don’t have to fret about getting benched for taking too many photographs.
“Knowing that there aren’t very many restrictions, like, he’s not coming in the locker room telling you, ‘No, you don’t get to shoot that, you don’t get to do that.’ It allows us to play free and confident,” Clowney mentioned of Fernandez. “We just make plays for each other. We know what we want to do… I think that’s good for our confidence and how we played down the stretch.”
Cam Johnson, a fellow ahead who performs the same fashion, was impressed by the 20-year-old’s efficiency. He is aware of how arduous it’s to dial in from deep after lacking prolonged time.
“For him to come back and have an impact like he did today, I mean, it’s tough,” Johnson mentioned. “It’s difficult to come back from being out for a while and to find your flow, and I think it was a little tough on him maybe the first couple minutes out there, but he kept his head up, and stayed with it and made some big play for us tonight was a big reason we came away with the win.”
Clowney has averaged 9.4 factors and three.9 rebounds throughout 39 video games this season whereas taking pictures 37.1% from the sphere and 34.7% from deep. Now wholesome, Fernandez expects the younger stretch ahead to continue to grow.
“Continue to do what he’s been doing defensively,” Fernandez mentioned. “He was very good at protecting the rim, especially going vertical at the rim. He’s grown a lot with his physicality and guarding, then different positions, one-on-one perimeter players, post up players.
“His growth has been great for how young he is. Offensively, he’s ready to let it fly. Probably one of our best guys at being ready to shoot and shooting efficiently…. He’s going to continue to grow and we believe he is and will be a very good two-way player in the NBA.”
