The Long Island Nets returned to their home court on Saturday night as they faced off with the undefeated Toronto Raptors 905. This time, though, the Long Island team would be without Danny Wolf as he was recalled to the big club in Brooklyn and Ben Saraf who’s coming off an ankle injury. This left Nolan Traore as the only member of the Flatbush 5 on Brooklyn’s NBA G League team. And as there often is with development, there were positives and negatives in his performance.
**Final Score: Raptors 905, 130 Long Island Nets 102.**
Traore shot the ball quite well, connecting on five of his 10 field goals, including hitting one of his two attempts from beyond the arc, finishing with a total of 16 points. Traore was perfect from the foul line as well, hitting all four of his attempts, which was a big plus. Traore has now scored in double figures in each of his first eight NBA G League games. NetsDaily spoke to Traore following the game, and he spoke on working on his shot and continuing to develop at the NBA G League level.
“We have a game in two days, so we’re just going to keep going and try to get the next one,” Traore told ND about his mindset coming out of this loss. “I think it’s good to play. I’m happy to play, and I work a lot also in practice, so I think my game has evolved, the shooting too got better, and I hope it’s going to continue.”
Recently, following Traore’s explosive 28-point performance, the big club’s head coach took notice and gave Traore some well-deserved praise. “I’m happy for sure,” Traore tells ND about Brooklyn’s head coach, Jordi Fernandez, noticing his 28-point, nine-assist performance. “It’s good that he watched that, and he knows that I’m here to play and show what I can do, so I’m happy.”
When asked how he was feeling about a recent injury scare Traore had in a game, Traore responded with: “I’m good, that’s the G League.”
All that said, with the good, comes the bad, and while Traore is shooting the ball well, he’s been up and down in another aspect of his game: ball protection.
After starting off with four, five, and six-turnover games, Traore seemed to be headed in the right direction. Unfortunately, things took a big step back on Saturday as he tied his season-high in turnovers, with six. This is where development comes in, so don’t fret, Nets fans, Traore’s recent miscues are as advertised. Fingers crossed, he can fix this issue sooner rather than later.
With Wolf now in Brooklyn, the team knew it would be time for other players to step up. Wolf’s call-up from Long Island left a big void in the Long Island. However, 6’8” 26-year-old big Tre Scott has come in ready to help mitigate the loss. On Saturday, Scott did just that Saturday as he picked up a career-high in points with 27. Scott connected on 10 of his 17 shots, including hitting four of his eight from beyond the arc.
Scott’s four three-pointers matched a career-high in the NBA G League. He also knocked down at least three shots from deep for the fourth straight game, marking the longest streak of his career. He also finished with five rebounds, two steals, and one block to add to his impressive stat sheet.
Malachi Smith, the 6’4” 25-year-old shooting guard, is coming off a stellar performance, scoring 24 points off the bench. Smith spoke to ND about his impressive team-leading 24-point performance:
“I know the skillset I have,” Smith said on his recent 24-point showing. “I think it was just taking advantage of an opportunity. It’s early in the season, I’ve only played like five games. This isn’t anything new or something I’ve never done before, so just staying confident and obviously being more aggressive. But it feels good being able to make shows. But I really focus on being able to impact the game more, impacting winning. So, if I don’t score a lot but do things to impact winning, I care about that more.”
Coming into this game, Smith said they had one thing on their mind: “stacking wins.” “We just came off a win,” Smith told ND. “We’re kind of trying to stack some wins. We’re not trying to win one, lose one. We want to be more consistent. We knew we had a good team coming in. We were in it for most of it, but we kind of let it slip away in the fourth. We have to bounce back Monday and play a full 48 to beat this team.”
Smith finished with 17 points. Smith shot the ball very well, connecting on eight of his 13 shots. However, he was only able to drain one of his four attempts from beyond the arc.
Overall, Smith said he’s pleased with his first month with the Long Island team. “I feel like it’s going good, but obviously it could be better,” Smith says about his first month with Long Island. “Obviously, I care about the wins. It’s a long season, but we just want to try and stack wins and continue to build on that. Being here so far, the coaching staff has really been with me in my player development. I feel like I’m staying more efficient, my shot being right, but also making the right play every time. Drawing two defenders, making the right pass, so I think overall those things.”
Long Island got off to a strong start against the undefeated Raptors with a 10-2 run from 3:38 to 2:09 in the first quarter. After a tightly contested opening frame in which both teams scored at least 12 bench points, the game was tied at 32-32. After the 905 went on a 15-2 run from 10:39 to 6:56 in the second, the Nets responded with an 11-0 spurt of their own from 6:19 to 4:00 in the second and trailed by two, 62-60, at the break.
The 905 started the second half on a 15-2 run, but Long Island fought back behind 12 third-quarter points from Scott, the highest-scoring quarter of his NBA G League career, to make it a 12-point game going into the final quarter, 93-81. The Nets went on a 9-0 run from 9:28 to 8:11 in the fourth, but the 905 held on for the 130-102 win.
Long Island is now 3-5, the Raptors 7-0.
The Long Island Nets (3-5) return to the court on Monday at 7:00 p.m. EST for a rematch with AJ Lawson and the undefeated Toronto Raptors 905. The game can be viewed on the NBA G League and Long Island Nets respective websites, as well as the Gotham Sports app.
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