Prior to tipoff on Wednesday, Nets coach Jordi Fernandez hoped his mere eight available players would make the minutes “meaningful” as some of them would likely not have the opportunity otherwise.
While Noah Clowney had already solidified himself early in the rotation and recently in a starting role following the trade of Dorian Finney-Smith, he did exactly that in bringing to light an improved aspect of his game, with a career-high 29 points in the Nets’ 113-98 loss to the Pistons at Barclays Center.
Clowney went 5-for-11 from beyond the arc, making it the second-most 3s he has made in a single game this season behind a 6-for-9 night against the Bucks on Dec. 26.
“What I like to call it is I like to keep teams honest. I don’t like where teams have the ability to sag off of me because I’m a weak shooter,” Clowney said afterward. “I feel like that hurts my team in general. So if I’m able to shoot the ball and I can keep somebody honest and keep the floor spaced for my guys to get in the lane, then that’s always been the goal. So after Bama, I think I shot 29 percent at Alabama, something like that, but I knew I could shoot. I think other people knew I could shoot. Somebody took a chance, and here we are.”
The second-year forward has grown more confident from deep recently.
In his lone season at Alabama in 2022-23, Clowney shot 28.3 percent from 3-point range, attempting just 3.3 per game.
This season, his attempts per game (5.3) have skyrocketed compared to his rookie year (1.4).
Additionally, his percentage from beyond the arc has jumped from 36.4 to 38.5.
“I think anytime you have a good performance it’s good for your confidence because obviously you know what you can do, but when you do it at the highest level in the real games where it matters, it translated,” Clowney said. “So, yeah, it’s a good feeling. It helps confidence, for sure.”
Said Fernandez: “He’s showing us what he’s able to do. He’s showing us coaches, he’s showing his teammates. What it makes is when we have our group back, then I’m completely comfortable calling certain things for him because I’ve seen him do it and he’s showing me that he can do it so it’s just making our group better. … Now, I know I can call A, B and C for Noah because I’ve seen him score 29. He’s able to score 29 right now, tomorrow and a month from now. So, that’s a really good thing.”
Clowney was given space from the Pistons on his first couple of swishes.
However, as the game progressed, they closed in on him and started running if he had an open shot.
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“We know they want to get guys off the line and they can play us off the arc and might be ready for a shot fake or whatever the case may be,” Clowney said. “Really just read and react. If someone is running at you full speed, they probably going to block that shot if you shoot it.”
This season, Clowney, 20, is averaging 21.3 minutes per game, but since the middle of December when the Nets made two big trades for future draft picks, he has averaged 29 minutes in the past 10 games.
With the added time, he is scoring 12.9 points in those games while shooting 42 percent from the field and 40 percent from deep.
In his starting role, Clowney is showing early-career maturity.
The Nets will be in need of that in a rebuilding year and especially ahead of their six-game, 10-day West Coast trip that starts Friday in Denver.
“I love his personality. Great sense of humor. His work ethic for a 20-year-old kid is amazing,” Fernandez said of Clowney. “He carries himself as a grown person. A mature worker. You can see a lot of times the frustration because he wants more and he expects more of himself.”