Portland walloped the Brooklyn Nets Monday, and did it while the leading scorer sat out another night with his bad ankle.
The Brooklyn Nets operated with a limited lineup once again Monday, leading to the 114-95 trouncing at the hands of the Portland Trail Blazers.
The leading scorer has been seen more in street clothes rather than his gameday uniform but for a good reason: He's nursed a bad ankle.
However, his head coach Jordi Fernandez revealed before the loss inside Barclays Center that Porter attempted to give it a shot against the Blazers.
"He did form shooting [before] the last game that we played, and today is going to be his first workout," Fernandez said via Erik Slater of ClutchPoints. "So let’s see how he feels after it’s getting better, and then we’ll assess.”
Porter still didn't take the floor. Yet Fernandez's words sound like Brooklyn won't plan to shut him down the rest of the season -- the opposite tactic of what they did for rookie Egor Demin and veteran Day'Ron Sharpe with their injuries.
With MPJ out, the Nets once again rolled with a limited lineup of active players. Fernandez played 11 players with three under 20 minutes. He earned 23 in the loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday.
Rookie Nolan Traore was another who received less than 20 minutes -- earning 16 but scoring four points. Surprisingly, bench player E.J. Liddell played the most on the hardwood (26 minutes off the bench). He scored four points and pulled down six rebounds.
Fernandez witnessed the Nets' best scoring production coming from the reserves. Chaney Johnson emerged as the breakout surprise in delivering a team-high 17 points. Johnson nearly completed the double-double too by luring in nine rebounds.
Tyson Etienne added 15 points along with rookie Ben Saraf. And the latter was questionable beforehand with a left calf contusion. Saraf tied for the team lead with four assists alongside fellow rookie Danny Wolf.
Nic Claxton led all starters in scoring 12 points in 20 minutes. Wolf scored eight and blocked two shots. Claxton added two blocks as well while one more rookie, Drake Powell, hit the same mark. Powell, however, ended with hitting only two points.
Ochai Agbaji (eight points) and Ziaire Williams (seven) rounded out the rest of the scoring for the Nets, who are now 17-51 overall with 14 regular season games left.
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