In a game in which Jacque Vaughn curiously and conspicuously ignored his bench, starter Nic Claxton was still off the floor in crunch time down the stretch.
With Claxton having banged with Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns all evening — held to six points on 2-of-6 shooting — Vaughn opted to go small in the waning moments. He logged just 6:53 in the fourth quarter, while sixth man Royce O’Neale played the entire final period as they tried to space the floor.
“We were just gonna go. We were gonna flow with that thing,” Vaughn said after the Nets’ 107-102 loss. “A timeout situation, that group was gonna stay in for spacing, similar to Spencer [Dinwiddie] being able to get to the rim the previous possession. That was really it.”
The starters and O’Neale all logged at least 32:03, but Joe Harris was the only other backup to play more than 4:56.
That was made even more noteworthy considering the Nets have to play a back-to-back, playing at Detroit on Wednesday night.
Still, Vaughn doesn’t expect any players to miss or be limited in that must-win tilt.
“Yeah everyone from what I know hopefully is available for tomorrow. That is the plan,” Vaughn said. “I think we tried Cam [Thomas] and Seth [Curry] early I thought overall the rest of the group with the way we were playing defense paired a little bit better so Seth and Cam will be ready for tomorrow and hopefully give us a good lift.”
Dorian Finney-Smith fell on the same wrist that was already sore from the other day. He finished the game and had 14 points and a team-high 10 rebounds for his second double-double of the season. He had 18 points and a season-high 12 boards on Jan. 26 while still with Dallas.
Dinwiddie tallied a Nets season-high 30 points tonight.
It was Dinwiddie’s fourth 30-point game of the season and his first since Jan. 28 with the Mavericks at Utah.
Cam Johnson and Bridges attended Monday’s Yankees game at the Stadium, meeting with Bombers manager Aaron Boone on the field before first pitch.
“It was pretty cool being a Yankee Stadium, seeing [everything up close]. It was pretty cool,” said Johnson, who has not yet declared an allegiance to the Yankees or Mets.
“Well, I’ve heard a lot of back-and-forth between Mets and Yankees, Mets and Yankees. So you know, maybe I’ll check out the Mets and see which vibe I’m more aligned with and pick my New York team from there. But Yankees are off to a good start.”
Bridges is on pace to lead the NBA in minutes played.
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