Nets forward DeMarre Carroll had his breakthrough in Atlanta when Kenny Atkinson was the lead assistant there. Sunday against those same Hawks, he reminded them how good he can be.
Carroll had 17 points, three rebounds, two assists, two steals and two blocks in 28 minutes, leading Brooklyn to a 116-104 win. And it was his switch from small forward to power forward after the Nets had blown a 16-point lead that spread the floor and killed Atlanta’s rally.
“We went with DeMarre at the four, so we changed that. We felt like needed some more shooting in there,” Atkinson said. “I think right after that DeMarre made that block. Someone came down the lane and he got a block. That was important. That was a big change.
“With DeMarre in there at the four, we can really spread them out. You can’t really help. So I think that was an important factor.”
Carroll’s block of Dennis Schroder helped key a pivotal 7-0 run.
“He was great for the Hawks and for me as we established what we wanted to do in Atlanta,” said Atlanta coach Mike Budenholzer. “His competitiveness, willing to do anything defensively, I think he really grew as a player in his time for us.
“He’s a bit of a road map for what we want to be and how we want to play. … He was just great how he came to work every day. I love the person, love the energy, love the spirit. So nothing but positives.”
The Nets held Atlanta to 34 percent shooting, their best field-goal defense effort since holding Detroit to 33.7 percent on Nov. 29, 2015.
On offense, they became the first team since the 1988-89 Portland Trail Blazers to score 115 points or more in each of their first three games.
D’Angelo Russell had 16 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds for his fourth career double-double. He was one assist shy of a career high, and is averaging 21 points, seven assists and 4.3 rebounds.
Teenage rookie Jarrett Allen had four blocks in 15 minutes off the bench. Only a single Net managed that many blocks off the bench all last season, Justin Hamilton doing it once.
Schroder was held to 5-of-22 shooting by D’Angelo Russell, and left the game in the fourth quarter after twisting his ankle on Caris LeVert’s foot.
“I don’t know a lot more,” Budenholzer said. “He’s in the back getting X-xays, so we will know what the X-Rays say shortly hopefully and we’ll just hope it’s a sprained ankle and nothing more.”