One of the bright spots for the Nets so far this season has been the play of rookie MarShon Brooks.
In a 97-87 loss to the Nets last night at Prudential Center, Kemba Walker showed why he’s arguably the lone bright spot for the Bobcats.
Playing without starters Corey Maggette and D.J. Augustin, who sat after playing a few minutes in the first quarter, Walker led the Bobcats with 16 points, six rebounds and four assists in 32-plus minutes.
“I hope Kemba can continue to play well,” Bobcats coach Paul Silas said. “He’s got to get his rest, eat properly … all of those things.
“We saw tonight he really pushed it and was into the game. If we had some of our injured guys here with him tonight, I think we would have had a legitimate shot of winning the game.”
Silas waited until recently to insert Walker into the starting lineup because the Bobcats already had a quality point guard in Augustin, who came into last night’s game averaging 14.5 points and 6.9 assists, and playing two guards who are barely 6-feet tall together can cause matchup problems on the defensive end.
The latest opponent to take advantage of that was Brooks. The 6-foot-5 guard finished with 20 points on 9-for-17 shooting to go along with six rebounds.
“I was able to get a few easy ones early, and that was the difference,” said Brooks, who struggled in Saturday night’s loss to the Thunder, going 6-for-17 from the floor.
* After missing the past four games with shin splints in his right leg, Shawne Williams came off the bench last night, finishing with six points on 2-for-6 shooting in just under 15 minutes.
“I felt rusty out there,” he said. “Things were moving fast. But it only takes 30 or 40 seconds to get into the rhythm of the game.”
Williams said he would be fine for tonight’s game in Chicago, the final leg of the Nets’ first back-to-back-to-back of the season. Likewise for DeShawn Stevenson, who Nets coach Avery Johnson had initially been worried could have trouble playing in all three games. But Stevenson said after last night’s game that he’d be fine to play tonight.