Shamet brings fireworks for birthday
Landry Shamet turned 24 on Saturday, and celebrated his birthday with yet another white-hot shooting performance in a Brooklyn win.
The Nets off guard had 15 points off the bench, shooting 5-of-6 overall and hit all three of his attempts from behind the arc. He finished a team-high plus-8 as the Nets downed the Pistons 100-95 for a fourth straight victory.
“I remember birthdays growing up watching basketball games on TV and the weather was turning nice and springtime and watching NBA games,” Shamet said. “To be able to be playing an NBA game, have an NBA jersey on with these guys. It is a good reminder that I’m in a good place and I’m lucky and blessed. It definitely means a lot for sure to play on my birthday and play well.”
Shamet has scored in double figures in a seasonhigh-tying three straight games. Since the beginning of February, he has shot .438 (46-of-105) from deep.
“The only change in pace I’ve made is from the actual in-game perspective,” Shamet said. “I’ve just been trying to slow down, be a little more even keel, get back to who I am — my roots — in that I’ve always taken pride in that and I feel like this season there’s been times where I’ve let myself fluctuate a little too much.”
➤ Kevin Durant and Blake Griffin both sat out, and it sounds like their continued absence could be measured in weeks, not days.
Durant, who missed his 11th consecutive game, is scheduled to have a third scan on his hamstring this coming week. Griffin is healthy, but just ramping up to full speed after long inactivity in Detroit. The former hasn’t played since
Feb. 13, the latter has been idle since the day before that. Neither is likely to be thrown into the fire.
“Kevin’s getting his scan this week coming, I’m not sure what day. But he has a scan coming up sometime in the next week,” Steve Nash said. “Blake, we just want him to ramp up appropriately. So I don’t know if that’s a week or two or what it is, but he’s going to ramp up.
“He hasn’t played in a long time. And we’ll keep monitoring and pushing him towards a return date. But we’re in no rush.”
➤ James Harden’s 24 points moved him one ahead of Larry Bird for 34th on the all-time scoring list.
“Obviously we all know how good Larry was and the things he did in Boston. A legend,” Harden said. “I’ve just got to continue to build, because at the end of the day, I want my name to be mentioned with those greats.”