Nets rookie ‘excited’ for 1st pro start

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — It may have only been a preseason game, but starting in the NBA for the first time still was pretty cool for Nets rookie Rondae HollisJefferson.

“Being in the starting lineup for a professional team, whether it’s preseason or the regular season, it’s a big deal,” he said after the Nets’ 9383 win over the Pistons Thursday night. “I was excited.”

HollisJefferson went scoreless in 28 minutes, finishing with four rebounds, two assists and two steals. But one thing he didn’t get to do very much of was guard his former college teammate, Stanley Johnson.

The two went at it every day in practice last season at Arizona before both declared for the draft.

For HollisJefferson, though, the only thing that mattered was the result.

“I think it was the same [as last year],” HollisJefferson said. “We competed against each other every day. We both wanted to win, so we had to do what we had to do.

“I just wanted to get the win. I knew if we won this game, it would help us build some chemistry. So I was focused on that, not [on] guarding him.”

The Nets had nearly as many players sit out as they had play.

Between injuries to Markel Brown (oblique strain), Andrea Bargnani (tight hamstring), Bojan Bogdanovic (sore ankle), Willie Reed (quad strain), continued recovery from offseason knee surgeries for Chris McCullough and Sergey Karasev and rest days for Jarrett Jack and Joe Johnson, just 11 of the 20 players on Brooklyn’s roster played.

But coach Lionel Hollins said he was happy with the performance, particularly from his point guards, as Shane Larkin (17 points, five rebounds, five assists) and Donald Sloan (nine points, seven rebounds) took advantage of Jack’s absence and played well.

“I talked to them this morning after shootaround, and I told them what I expected in terms of they had to control the tempo,” Hollins said. “They had to push it when we had it, and they had to bring it out when we didn’t have it. … [I thought] they did pretty good.”