Brooklyn unable to overcome LeVert’s unsightly effort
Caris LeVert had been a revelation so far this young season, by far the Nets’ best player. He’s essentially carried Brooklyn and earned the nickname “Baby Max” in the locker room. But on Monday, we got our first look at what happens when LeVert struggles, and it was ugly.
It’s no coincidence that the first time LeVert had a poor game, the Nets got crushed 115-96 in the rematch with the Knicks before 19,221 at the Garden. Brooklyn had beaten the Knicks 107-105 in
their first meeting this season on Oct. 19.
“This is the next level of becoming a great player in this league, to do it consistently,” Nets coach Kenny Atkinson said. “And he’s done it for most of the season. He had a tough game [Monday]. We need him.
“We need him to be not good, we need him to be very, very good. So tonight was one of those nights. But those are the nights where somebody else has to step up. We need someone from the bench, or another starter to step up
and take the torch.”
With LeVert having his first tough outing, not only did no other Net step up, they wilted. LeVert mustered just four points on 2of-11 shooting, missing all six of his 3-point attempts.
He finished a team-worst minus-23, and without him leading the way the Nets (2-5) trailed by as much as 25.
Though LeVert said the Knicks didn’t really guard him any differently, he admitted the pressure of carrying a heavy nightly burden is new to him, and something he’ll have to get used to.
“Yeah, for sure,” said LeVert, who beat the Knicks with a last-ditch winner in the Nets’ home opener. “That’s definitely an adjustment for me. But the great thing about the NBA is it’s not like football where you’ve got to wait a full week and think about it every single day.”
LeVert came into the game averaging 21.3 points on 51.6 percent shooting, 4.8 rebounds and 4.5 assists, one of just nine players in the league averaging 20-4-4 while shooting 50 percent or better. The other eight?
Steph Curry, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Devin Booker, Blake Griffin and Nikola Jokic.
At just 24, he had started to show why the Nets were loath to include him in any potential deal for Jimmy Butler. But on Monday he also showed how far he has to go to reach that level of consistency, and the Nets showed how horribly flawed they are until he does.
LeVert had played well when the Nets took New Orleans and Golden State to the wire. Whether the tough
losses took their heart or the third game in four days took their legs, either way they shot 11-of-38 from deep against the Knicks and got outrebounded 53-32.
“A little bit of both. But we’ve just got to be better. We’ve got to be more mature as a team, despite our age, despite anything else. Three games in four days, that’s the NBA. We can’t put it on that,” LeVert said. “We’ve just got to learn how to be better in those situations, just prepare better mentally and physically.”