Ed Davis and Shabazz Napier have given the Brooklyn Nets everything they were looking for after being signed as free agents over the summer, and the pair made a huge impact Friday night against the New York Knicks.
The 109-99 victory was Brooklyn's sixth straight going into Monday night's matchup with the Boston Celtics, and the Nets now have the NBA's best record over their last 24 games with a 19-5 mark.
Davis has been rock-solid reliable as Brooklyn's backup center, and Friday night he stepped forward with 17 points and 16 rebounds, matching his season highs in each category. He scored nine of his points late in the third quarter and early in the fourth as the Nets began to pull away.
"Ed was a difference-maker," said Nets coach Kenny Atkinson. "His physicality, his reads out of the pick and roll, they were blitzing the pick and roll. You've got to hit the big guy. D'Angelo did an unbelievable job, didn't force stuff, got it out of there. Ed made great reads. He looked like a point guard out there. His toughness, his physicality has helped us so much this year."
Napier moved up to a bigger role in the rotation with Spencer Dinwiddie sidelined with a thumb injury and delivered 18 points, teaming with Theo Pinson to lead a second-quarter push that got the Nets even at halftime after they trailed by as many as 11 points.
While he only shot 3-for-13, Napier made 11-of-12 free throws, giving the Nets the driving element they were missing without Dinwiddie.
"We needed that," said Atkinson. "I thought we needed that spark, especially their 5 was blitzing the pick and roll and then they were switching everything else. So the team switch, you need to get downhill. You need to break the guy down. That's why, Spencer, teams don't switch on us so much, because he can just blow by the big guy and I thought Shabazz created that for us. He took the mismatch, he took them on, obviously got downhill, got to the free throw line."
Davis and Napier both came to Brooklyn from Portland, where they played on consecutive playoff teams with the Trail Blazers, helping Portland to the Western Conference's No. 3 seed in last season's playoffs.
"No matter what, you put Shabazz out there, five minutes, 10 minutes, 15, he's going to be ready," said Davis. "If you don't play him, he's at practice the next day ready to go. He's one of the hardest working guys that I've played with. He's a dog out there."
Napier has a high game of 32 points this season against Milwaukee on Dec. 29, and while he's averaging 9.0 points in 16.7 minutes per game, that comes out to a per 36 scoring rate of 19.4. Davis, long one of the NBA's strongest per-minute rebounders, is rebounding at a career high per 36 rate of 17.1, second in the league only to Miami's Hassan Whiteside (17.2) and ahead of overall rebounding leader Andre Drummond.
Davis has also been at the top or among the league leaders in offensive, defensive, and overall rebounding percentage all season long.
"At the end of the day, you're going to need somebody to rebound," said Napier. "No one makes all their shots, so you need somebody that's going to be in there, be a junkyard dog, who's going to fight for every rebound. He gets unappreciated a lot, but I think games like this you start to realize why he is so pivotal. You're going to need him in the toughest moments and I think today he did a great job."
MISSING SPENCER
The Nets will continue to be without Spencer Dinwiddie for awhile after he undergoes surgery to repair ligaments in his thumb. It will be a test, but the Nets have been thriving for nearly two months now while dealing with other injuries and overcoming the obstacles.
"Just like we've done all year," said Atkinson before Friday's game. "We've had various guys miss games and miss some time. I've always said we're a deeper team than we've been in the past and guys have stepped up. We've had some little bit of struggles but we seem to be resilient enough to get through those, the injuries we've had in the past."
As he did Friday night, Napier will continue to absorb a bigger role in Dinwiddie's absence. The versatile guard has been regularly playing in lineups that included either or both of Dinwiddie or D'Angelo Russell, but will see some more time solo at the point.
"I've always been a Shabazz Napier advocate," said Atkinson before Friday's game. "Really wanted him on our ball club. I think he's played well for us. I think it's a great opportunity for him tonight. And he'll get to man the point himself, which I think he's another guy that, he's a point guard at the end of the day. So it's a great opportunity for him."
ABOUT THE CELTICS
Monday's in January are for the Celtics. This will be the third Monday meeting in the last four weeks for Brooklyn and Boston, with the teams splitting home wins. Now the Nets are headed back to Boston, where they lost 116-95 on Jan. 7. That was part of a four-game Boston win streak that was followed by a three-game slide that included a 109-102 loss to the Nets at Barclays Center on Jan. 14. The Celtics followed with five straight wins before losing 115-111 to the Golden State Warriors on Saturday. Boston (30-19) is in fifth place in the Eastern Conference, 3.5 games ahead of the sixth-place Nets (27-23). The Celtics are third in the NBA in net rating (6.1), fifth in defensive rating (104.9) and 10th in offensive rating (111.0). Kyrie Irving leads Boston with 23.7 points and 6.9 assists per game.