ATLANTA — Backup point guard Dennis Smith Jr. had 13 points and four assists for the Nets, but it was his defense that helped them to a 114-113 road win over the Hawks.
“Dennis was unbelievable when we put him in the game,” coach Jacque Vaughn said. “At times we told him just to guard Trae Young and to figure out how to get through pick-and-roll and switching and not switching. And he was great, even to the last possession the game, we had him in to guard Trae.”
Smith guarded Young on the final possession, forcing a miss to seal the Nets’ victory.
“Just being physical,” Smith said. “I’ve been feeling good, my body feeling good for real for real. So I can impose my will against other players.”
Young still finished with 30 points, but Smith at least made the Atlanta star work for them, and not wreck the Nets’ defensive game plan like he’s done so often in the past.
Last year, Young sent the Nets home with a buzzer-beater. Two weeks ago, he poured in 43 points to hand them a 147-145 overtime loss. But on Wednesday, he shot 11-of-24 and just 3-of-9 from deep.
After taking five free throws in the first quarter, he didn’t get another the rest of the night.
“That’s like our vocal leader, man, he wants to win so bad and I remember trying to get him this summer to come to the Nets,” Mikal Bridges said. “I watched him play winning basketball on a team that wasn’t winning. I watched that when he was in Charlotte and I was just watching that, I’m just like, I know a winning player when I see one.And they asked me about him, I was like hell yeah.”
Nets leading scorer Cam Thomas was held to just six points on 3-of-10 shooting with five turnovers.
It’ll be a learning experience for him, as he was clearly at the top of Atlanta’s game plan, constantly blitzed and doubled from the start.
“For sure,” Vaughn said. “This is great. When I took him out of the game, I sat next to him [and] I said, ‘This is great. This is this is growing for you also. Can you imagine this, that a team is double-teaming you and you got to find a way how to react to it? So then he made some adjustments.’ … The very first play of the third quarter, we took advantage of that.
“We let them blitz him, we throw it to Nic [Claxton], we got a backdoor cut for [Cam Johnson]. So that’s just growth for him. Like, do your part as a teammate…. And it’s more than scoring. And he realizes that, whether that’s on the defensive end, whether that’s making the right play. So, man, total growth from him.And still believe in him.”
Both Claxton and Day’Ron Sharpe had 10 rebounds.
Their minutes have stayed the same but Vaughn has used them as a platoon in shorter bursts, keeping them fresher.