Egor Dëmin is going to miss at least the next week with a right leg bone bruise. And Brooklyn sorely missed his offense Friday night.
The Nets went ice-cold in a 110-94 loss to visiting Detroit, missing Dëmin’s spacing and secondary playmaking.
Brooklyn was short-handed, so they went big-bodied, with Jordi Fernández eschewing going to the bench for a guard (such as Keon Ellis or Terance Mann) and instead handing 6-foot-7, 235-pound two-way Chaney Johnson only his second career start — and his first in the backcourt.
The results were mixed. Johnson’s size and athleticism helped the defense, especially on Pistons star Cade Cunningham.
But the offense took a hit.
“Our offense is not … we’re not generating the looks we want. Part of it is every night is a new lineup’s playing together. Chemistry is a real thing,” Michael Porter Jr. said. “So lineups can have something to do with it. Egor is out, we put Chaney in there. That’s a group that hasn’t played together. So sometimes when it comes to the positions we’re playing on the floor, it might be confusing for some guys.
“Chaney normally plays the four when we run plays, but he might be playing the two with this group. For us, we need to know different positions in the playbook. So some of that’s on the players, just so that when we’re put in the game in different positions, we can execute regardless of where we are. So I think that was part of it, guys were not knowing where they’re supposed to be on certain plays.”
Johnson had six points, a steal and a block in 18:32, much of it spent using his length to harass Cunningham.
The Pistons guard worked hard for his 20 points on a modest 6 of 15 with four turnovers.
“Yeah, he did great,” Fernández said. You know, he picked up those three fouls, and then we had that good run to respond to their run, which we cut it to six. They called a timeout. And then they went to a 28-9 run, so they won those minutes by 19 points.
“And I thought Cheney’s effort and purpose and everything he’s done so far, it’s been very good. I think he’s taking advantage of his minutes. We just need everybody to have the same intentions and intensity and play as hard as he plays. And I think then we will be OK.”
The Nets play at Indiana at 5 p.m. Sunday.
They got drilled at home by the Pacers, but this time they won’t face Tyrese Haliburton.
The star guard is out for at least the next two weeks with a strained left hamstring.
