MIAMI — First, Day’Ron Sharpe impressed the Nets with a solid offseason.
Then got here a robust training camp and preseason.
Now it’s time to do it for real.
Sharpe closed out the preseason with a 19-point, 11-rebound, three-block effort, lifting the Nets to a 107-104 victory over the Heat on Wednesday night.
His 3-pointer with 1:49 gave the Nets the lead for good.
The third-year center, a profession .572 free-throw shooter, even went an encouraging 6-for-6 from the foul line.
That didn’t go unnoticed by coach Jacque Vaughn.
“Yeah, three things that [I] said after the sport,” Vaughn said. “I told the fellows what time the bus time was, that was one. Then the second was: Day’Ron Sharpe, method to make your free throws. That was two. And the third one was they were out he was looking over at me such as you were drained, but then that 3-ball got here and also you shot that thing so that you weren’t that drained. Those three things after the sport.
“So, very impressed with that young man. He’s put within the work and to be accountable to step up and shoot two free throws, whether it’s preseason, regular season, there was still some pressure on the road. So reward his work, and comfortable for him.”
The 6-foot-9, 260-pound Sharpe, who has improved enough to persuade Vaughn to change to more drop-coverage to be able to get him on the court, had looked winded before he hit the clutch 3.
“I told him, shoot, a little bit break. Somewhat rest? But when it’s time to play, I’m going to play hard, if I’m drained or not,” said Sharpe, who has made a robust case for enjoying time behind starter Nic Claxton.
“Personally, I just feel like last yr I did the identical thing during preseason. I don’t learn about training camp, but in preseason I did the identical thing. So I’m glad I played good, but at the tip of the day, I’ve got to try this [crap] in the course of the season. So immediately, I’m ready for the season to begin so I can just show people I can do it in the course of the season, too. Preseason really doesn’t matter.”
Mikal Bridges had 11 points on 5 of 14 shooting.
He has had a quiet preseason, but that’s because after the Nets simply ran the identical sets for him last season that they’d used for Kevin Durant, they haven’t installed anything for him yet.
“Yeah, I suppose I can reveal that we haven’t really put any sets in from Mikal yet,” Vaughn said. “So really, I’ve been trying to simply get us to grasp easy methods to change sides of the ground with the basketball, play concept basketball. So we’ve been really focused on that. Probably only the plays we put in is just a few side out-of-bounds and out-of-bounds-underneath.
“I feel we’ll use this time from here to the primary game to get some sets in that put Mikal in positions to achieve success. But really, that was the strategy. We’ve got to learn easy methods to play with Nic and Ben [Simmons] within the spacing, concept basketball, easy methods to play with one another for one another, easy methods to get one another open. In order that’s been really the emphasis to this point, which has been good to see.”
Cam Johnson (hamstring) is predicted to practice Saturday.
