ATLANTA — The Nets are going to be short-handed in the backcourt for Sunday’s game in Dallas, missing both Egor Dëmin and Mikel Brown Jr.
Dëmin will miss a sixth straight game, and after that, the young guard and his leg injury will be reevaluated by the Nets.
“Yeah, he’s progressing well,” coach Jordi Fernández said of Dëmin. “He’s on the court. He’s not going to play [Saturday] or [Sunday], and then we’ll go from there.”
Dëmin suffered a bone bruise in his right leg Oct. 27 in Boston during a 125-124 overtime loss to the Celtics. Two days later, the Nets announced he’d be reevaluated after one week.
The Russian missed a fifth straight tilt in Saturday’s loss at Atlanta. But with the Nets slated to practice Tuesday in Dallas, the team at least left open the possibility of Dëmin returning at some point on this four-game road trip.
Meanwhile, Brown is still not cleared for back-to-backs.
“It’s a plan that we have with professionals that know exactly about how your body is, how you feel after,” Fernández said. “Then we assess the player, and then once we assess the player, then we keep building him up. So right now he’s not gonna play back-to-backs.”
Center Day’Ron Sharpe had his first career triple-double with 12 points, a career-high 13 assists and 10 boards.
“A lot of great players I’m playing with, Michael [Porter Jr.] has got a lot of gravity towards him. So they’re trying to stop him from playing for 3s, and then it leads to backdoor cuts. Then it also opens up for my other teammates as well, driving in, kicking or whatever. They’re trying to over help on Mike, so just making the right read every time,” Sharpe said.
“Yeah, I mean 13 assists, four turnovers, that’s elite numbers. And proud of him,” Fernández said. “We just gotta make sure that we keep rebounding as a group. It’s not just on him, but that’s probably a big reason why the game was lost right there.”
Noah Clowney was available after being listed as questionable with an illness and after being forced out of the win over the Hornets in the third quarter with a sore knee.
Drake Powell was available after having been questionable on a G-League assignment, recalled from Long Island. Joshua Jefferson, Ben Saraf, Tyler Bilodeau and Grant Nelson were all out on assignment.
