Michael Porter Jr. has put on a pretty spectacular show this season.
The problem is when the other Nets have stood around and watched it.
The veteran forward is in the midst of a career year. To his credit, he hasn’t been chucking but has played team-oriented ball. But down the stretch in Friday’s loss to the Mavericks, the Nets reverted to relying upon him to dominate, rather than taking advantage of the gravity that his white-hot form provided.
It’s a mistake they can ill afford to repeat going forward.
“We kept looking at Mike instead of using him and others taking or making the shot,” coach Jordi Fernández said. “You can control if you take a good shot, you cannot control if it goes in.”
Entering Saturday, Porter was in the top 15 in scoring (25.8). Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic are the only two ahead of him on that list, grabbing more boards than his 7.6. But to Fernández’s point, the Nets are utterly reliant on him.
Porter became the first forward in league history with four straight games of at least 30 points and five 3-pointers. The only other five players who’ve ever managed the feat are Stephen Curry, James Harden, Damian Lillard, Anthony Edwards and Gary Trent Jr. But Friday marked his eighth game scoring at least 32 points, and the Nets are 6-2 in those contests. They’re winless in his other 12 appearances.
It’s something to monitor as teams load up to stop Porter, as Dallas did late in the fourth quarter.
“We didn’t get the looks we wanted,” Porter said. “They started paying more attention to me coming up the floor and less attention to some of the other stuff going on.
“We’ve just got to make the right reads, hit the pocket to [Nic] Claxton, him being able to finish or being able to find people, me being able to find people when they throw multiple defenders. I don’t think we did a good job getting the best looks, or being organized. We’ve made strides in that area, but we’ve still got to be better in the last quarter and last five minutes, especially.”
Rookie first-round pick Ben Saraf is out Sunday against Milwaukee with an illness.
Cam Thomas (left hamstring strain) and Haywood Highsmith (right knee surgery) are still out injured for the Nets. But two-ways EJ Liddell and Tyson Etienne were both recalled from G-League. The former had been with Long Island and dealing with an ankle injury.
Long Island Nets beat the Westchester Knicks 110-107 to close the first part of the G-League season at .500.
