The Brooklyn Nets will have a different look when they visit the Toronto Raptors for the second time in two weeks on Wednesday night.
The Nets traded Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton to the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday, just before their 102-101 road loss to the Orlando Magic.
In return, the Nets received D’Angelo Russell, Maxwell Lewis and three second-round draft choices.
With Milton scoring 12 points and Finney-Smith putting up eight, the Nets defeated the Raptors 101-94 on Dec. 19.
The Nets have lost four of five since while the Raptors have continued to tumble, dropping their 11th in a row on Tuesday, a 125-71 demolition by the host Boston Celtics. The 54-point losing margin was the biggest in Raptors’ history. It was the second-largest margin of victory in Celtics’ history.
The departure of Finney-Smith should result in the Nets leaning more on Noah Clowney, 20. As a reserve against Toronto in December, he had 11 points and nine rebounds. Clowney has started four of Brooklyn’s past five games and is averaging 13.4 points and 4.4 rebounds in that five-game span.
“There’s going to be minutes to play,” Brooklyn coach Jordi Fernandez said. “There’s going to be assists. There’s going to be threes. There’s going to be all this stuff that somebody else has to take. And (Sunday) was an example.”
Clowney had 13 points at Orlando, shooting 3-for-5 on 3-point attempts in 28 minutes of court time. The Nets squandered a 21-point lead and were outscored 34-18 in the fourth quarter.
Fernandez said Clowney is trying “to do the right things.”
“It’s a lot of things I can improve at,” Clowney said. “Being consistent, staying cool. That’s probably the main thing. But it’s a lot of things I need to work on.”
“He’s playing the perimeter spot one through four,” Fernandez said. “He’s playing the five. He’s letting it fly. Also, defensively, he’s finding the way to be physical … without fouling. There’s things that he can clean up, but this is a process, and you have to go through it. I just want him mentally to control the ups and downs.”
For the Raptors, there have been only downs in the past four weeks.
Toronto has committed 52 turnovers over the past two games, including 21 against Boston on Tuesday.
The Raptors held Boston to 45 points in the first half but scored only 35. Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic felt that was a positive development after the team was flat in the previous two games.
“I thought in the first half we came out and we had a lot of fight,” Rajakovic said. “To me that was a step in a positive direction.”
Boston, however, shot 74.4 percent (29-for-39) from the field in the second half and made what Rajakovic felt were tough shots. Boston hit 77.8 percent (14-for-18) from 3-point range after the break.
The Celtics wound up outshooting the Raptors 54 percent to 31.4 percent from the floor and 51.2 percent (22 of 43) to 25 percent (10 of 40) from beyond the arc.
Rajakovic talked about “turning the page” to be ready for the Nets.
“It should be motivation for us to come out (Wednesday) and be very competitive,” he said.
Gradey Dick (hamstring) and RJ Barrett (illness) did not pay for the Raptors on Tuesday.
“There is a lot of adversity, and we’re feeling that adversity, and it’s good,” Rajakovic said Monday. “We’re going to use that adversity to our advantage, to get information that we need to improve, to focus on the most important things and to see the growth. That’s what this whole season is about, and to also learn who can rise to challenge and who cannot.”
–Field Level Media
