New York Post

Nets’ Bogdanovic thrives despite demotion

- By BRIAN LEWIS

Coaches constantly preach about building a culture, about getting players to buy in and accept roles, even if that means not always getting the minutes they want. Monday’s slump-busting 120-118 win over the Hornets was an example of that for the Nets.

Randy Foye was recently banished from the rotation, but was forced into crunch time with Jeremy Lin’s injury and hit the game-winning shot. And Bojan Bogdanovic lost his starting spot to Joe Harris, but bounced back with a gamehigh 26 points off the bench.

“I played the last couple of games bad, so that’s coach’s decision — I have to respect that. I don’t have any problem with it. I just try to be aggressive to do something for the team,’’ said Bogdanovic, who had 13 points in the third quarter, when the Nets usually struggle but outscored Charlotte 29-25.

“They started with a 7-0 run in the third quarter, then Joe got injured. I tried to be aggressive.”

Coach Kenny Atkinson had no further updates on Lin, and declined to elaborate on his discussion with Bogdanovic other than to say the wing took the news profession­ally.

“That’s between Bojan and me. But why do coaches make decisions? You get a lot of informatio­n and felt like we needed a change,’’ Atkinson said. “He was extremely profession­al, even when I told him. Yes, I’ll accept this role. We’ll see going forward, and we’ll see the matchups going forward. But I’m proud. He was resilient, he responded. So kudos to him.”

Foye had been benched for four straight games in the wake of Lin’s return, then logged a total of 23:28 in the last three when rookie Isaiah Whitehead was out with a foot injury. But Foye put in the work to stay sharp and got 20:43 on Monday.

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