Kyle Kuzma jostled on the Nets floor. At the heart of his very bad evening (15 points at 4/16 on shots), the Wizards player was no match for the physical impact of Nick Claxton.
Two minutes from the end, on an unsteady transmission from Jordan Poole, Kuzma saw the Nets pivot emerge in front of him for an interception which led Mikal Bridges to finish on the counterattack. A few seconds later, in transition, the former Lakers player made his way to the circle. But Nic Claxton rose to send his shot to the front row.
Two gestures that say a lot about the evening back from inside New York. “ I didn’t want to ask myself too many questions. », assures the 24-year-old player who had left frustrated by his start to the season. He injured his ankle in the opening match against the Cavs and had not played again since.
“ It’s been a while since he last played. It is therefore a question of familiarizing him again with the game plan, the contacts, the physical dimension, the conditioning », listed Jacque Vaughn before the meeting. In his absence, the Nets coach had preferred to shift the smaller Dorian Finney-Smith at position 5, rather than starting Day’ron Sharpe for example.
First double-double of the season
Obviously, having a professional pivot in the racket changes the situation. “ We talked about Nic’s impact on defense and his actions at the end of the match. It deters near the circle and can ‘switch’ (in defense). We missed it », admits the coach.
Against the Wizards, his pivot behaved as expected. In 28 minutes, he grabbed 13 rebounds and blocked 4 shots. In attack, apart from two missed hooks, the interior did not waste anything to reach the 10-point mark (5/7 on shots) and sign its first double-double of the season.
“ Our defense suffered because Nic wasn’t there for us. His ability to defend in several positions, to change defense, in ‘drop coverage’ or man to man, to protect the circle, to be a force which means that when a back takes the back line, at least he sees a taller guy at the circle instead of seeing (Dorian Finney-Smith) or Royce (O’Neale), guys who compensated in this position and tried to do the best possible », continues Jacque Vaughn.
The latter must be delighted to recover his starting pivot now because his Nets, whose record has just been balanced (5v-5d), will continue against teams with high-level pivots (Sixers, Heat, Bulls, etc.) in the coming days.
Nicholas Claxton | Percentage | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Season | Team | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | L.F. | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Party | Int | Bp | Ct | Pts |
2019-20 | BRK | 15 | 13 | 56.3 | 14.3 | 52.4 | 1.3 | 1.7 | 2.9 | 1.1 | 0.9 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 4.4 |
2020-21 | BRK | 32 | 19 | 62.1 | 20.0 | 48.4 | 1.3 | 3.8 | 5.2 | 0.9 | 2.1 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 1.3 | 6.6 |
2021-22 | BRK | 47 | 21 | 67.4 | 0.0 | 58.1 | 1.9 | 3.7 | 5.6 | 0.9 | 2.3 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 1.1 | 8.7 |
2022-23 | BRK | 76 | 30 | 70.5 | 0.0 | 54.1 | 2.4 | 6.8 | 9.2 | 1.9 | 2.8 | 0.9 | 1.3 | 2.5 | 12.6 |
2023-24 | BRK | 1 | 28 | 30.0 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 4.0 | 3.0 | 7.0 | 4.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 3.0 | 7.0 |
Total | 171 | 24 | 67.6 | 14.3 | 54.1 | 2.0 | 4.9 | 6.9 | 1.4 | 2.4 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 1.7 | 9.7 |
How to read the stats? MJ = matches played; Min = Minutes; Shots = Successful shots / Attempted shots; 3pts = 3-points / 3-points attempted; LF = free throws made / free throws attempted; Off = offensive rebound; Def=defensive rebound; Tot = Total rebounds; Pd = assists; Fte: Personal fouls; Int = Intercepts; Bp = Lost balls; Ct: Against; Pts = Points.