The Nets may see some “Hack-a-Reggie” in their future.
Facing a huge deficit in the fourth quarter of Friday night’s game, the Wizards sent Reggie Evans to the foul line 10 times in the fourth quarter alone of what eventually became a 95-78 Nets win in front of a sellout crowd inside Barclays Center.
Evans finished the game with 11 points — despite finishing the game 5-for-16 from the charity stripe — along with an impressive 24 rebounds. It is that rebounding prowess that leaves interim coach P.J. Carlesimo weighing whether or not it’s worth keeping him in the game in such a situation.
“The numbers do not show it, but he’s shooting his free throws better. It’s difficult. If he’s splitting them, I don’t mind, but it’s hard. We’ll have to see.
“The simple answer is if he has 11 points and 24 rebounds, yeah, he’s probably going to be out there.”
Evans struggled mightily, making 3-of-10 from the line, though he received huge support from the capacity crowd throughout. The place nearly exploded when he made the final two free throws he attempted, and Evans then received a standing ovation when he was subbed out a few moments later.
“They just wanted to see me make it,” Evans said. “They want to see their home team making it. They know I’m a poor free throw shooter, so it’s almost like instead of knocking a person down you may as well pick him up because, at the end of the day, you want to win.”
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Deron Williams was almost too hot for the Nets.
Sure, Carlesimo was thrilled to see his point guard go off for a season-high 42 points and hit a franchise record 11 3-pointers. But, in doing so, Williams threw the rest of the team out of sync offensively.
Only Evans and Brook Lopez, who each had 11 points, finished in double-figures, and the team combined to shoot just 39 percent from the field, even with Williams’ sensational performance.
In fact, outside of Williams, the Nets managed to shoot just 17-for-57 (29.8 percent) from the field and 1-for-11 from 3-point range.
“In a weird way, when a guy is going that good, we never could really get Brook or Joe [Johnson] going,” Carlesimo said. “We were so disjointed. Obviously you take it and we’re pleased.”
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In his second game as a part of the rotation, Mirza Teletovic struggled with his shot again, finishing 1-for-8 from the field. Though the one shot he did make was the only 3-pointer any Net besides Williams made all night.
Teletovic also did finish with eight rebounds, including four on the offensive end, in just under 20 minutes.