MIAMI — Tuesday morning, two-ways Armoni Brooks and Jalen Wilson had just started training camp with G-League Long Island, and Trendon Watford was still looking to make his season debut with Brooklyn.
Wednesday night, the trio helped the Nets to a 109-105 come-from-behind victory over the Heat.
Brooks had 17 points on 6 of 7 shooting, 5 of 6 from deep.
He finished a staggering plus-30 in just 15:55 after a whirlwind 24 hours or so.
“So what’s today? Tuesday? Wednesday? So Tuesday morning I had practice with the team in Long Island, started training camp, had a good practice there. And right after practice, probably about noon, we found out we were coming to Miami,” said Brooks. “We had to hurry up, go shower and catch a flight within three hours and landed about 7 o’clock last night. And we went to shootaround and just prepped ourselves to get ready to play.”
This was the Nets’ fifth straight win over Miami, tying their longest streak over the Heat in franchise history.
It also marked a fourth straight road win in Miami, a franchise record.
Watford had 11 points, four assists and four boards, a secondary playmaker with point guards Spencer Dinwiddie and Dennis Smith Jr. hurt and Ben Simmons in foul trouble.
“Just staying ready, man. They work hard. They work hard all summer, preseason, everything,” said Mikal Bridges. “We’ve got a lot of depth and they just shined when opportunity was called. It’s big for us.
“Good for them to just to feel good. But we’re gonna need that. We’ve got bodies down and the NBA is 82 games and injuries happened and stuff like that. So, I mean, I know they know the scout. I know that’s definitely number one. But they can all hoop.”
Nets starting guard Spencer Dinwiddie missed his third straight game, downgraded from doubtful to out with a sprained left ankle.
Backup point guard Dennis Smith Jr. also sat out with a left hip contusion.
“Spencer was more day-to-day with his ankle injury,” Vaughn said. “Then Dennis tried to go through shootaround [Wednesday] morning a little bit, and tried to do a little effort to be available tonight. Just doesn’t have it.”
Vaughn wouldn’t speculate on whether either would be back for Friday’s In-Season Tournament game at Chicago.
“I’m not in a position to rule in or out,” said Vaughn. “Really, they’re under the umbrella of being day-to-day, and hopefully we see improvement in-between games.”
Starting center Nic Claxton (sprained left ankle) and starting power forward Cam Johnson (strained left calf) were also out, as expected.
Claxton has been out of his walking boot and is making progress.
Watford spent a season-and-a-half playing alongside the newly signed Johnson, saying while the latter has that NBA Combine-record 48-inch vertical Johnson prides himself on guarding more than leaping.
“He’s a hell of a defender. That’s what he takes pride in being a defender and being that physical aggressive point guard-slash-combo guard that a lot of teams look for,” said Watford. “He’s had some unfortunate situations happen, but he’s a great player, great person. So I’m just glad we got him in. And the vertical, his athleticism is crazy.”
Cam Thomas went into Wednesday averaging 32.1 in eight career starts.
That’s second all-time according to Elias, ahead of Michael Jordan (30.5), James Harden (27.9) and Luka Doncic (27.7). The only player who averaged more was Kenny Lofton Jr., who poured in 42 in his lone start.
Kevin Durant picked Brooklyn to come out of the East as the wild-card team in the In-Season Tournament: “They’ve got so much length and athleticism over there top to bottom. Their point guard is like 6-foot-6,” Durant said.
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