Long Island has now lost seven straight after last night’s 113-93 defeat to the Cleveland Charge, a season-ending seven straight … and that’s a problem with G League playoffs days away.
They are short-handed with none of the Flatbush Five, the Nets three two-ways nor their one 10-day available their bench. And now, the G League playoffs are four days away with no clarity as to how many, if any, of their top players will be available to face the Osceola Magic in Florida Wednesday night.
So, the Long
Island squad must figure out something. With the three two-way players — Chaney Johnson, EJ Liddell and Tyson Etienne — up in Brooklyn along with Malachi Smith, who’s on his second 10-day contract, Long Island has been struggling with slim pickings. This leads to one major worry in the mind of Long Island fans: if none of the players named above return to the G League this season, does this team have what it takes to make a deep run into this year’s playoffs? Indeed, the G League tournament is single elimination meaning win-or-go-home.
Of course, Brooklyn is also down players. Four players are out with injuries — two officially for the season and two unlikely to play any but a few of the final eight games. Jordi Fernandez needs bodies. How soon might we know about the playoff roster? You’d think by Monday.
So, on Saturday night, the Long Island squad lost another one, this one by 20 — the biggest margin of defeat in the streak.
These holes left by the names above open a lot of spots with very big shoes that need to be filled. Names like Hunter Cattoor, Dre Davis, and Javon Freeman-Liberty (albeit inconsistently) have been shining through, sometimes having very little help from anyone else on the squad.
With that said, there’s a lot of reason to worry about Long Island being a one-and-done team, as it’s currently constructed.
They had a formidable challenge on Saturday night for the season finale, and they got absolutely walloped. While Long Island tried to make it close at times, the Cleveland offense had its way with Long Island over-and-over-and-over again, alley-oop after alley-oop. As a matter of fact, only three players for Long Island scored over 10 points, and only two were in that category at halftime.
Freeman-Liberty has been very inconsistent as of late. In his first couple of games with Long Island, he was a scoring machine, but recently, he took a step back and had a couple of downright brutal shooting performances. Now, it appears the Freeman-Liberty, who first made his debut with Long Island, is right back where he started, and just in time for the playoffs.
He connected on 10 of his 15 shot attempts, for a total of 25 points, which not only led the team, but led the entire game off of the Long Island bench. He shot 50% from deep and went one-for-two from the foul stripe. This performance is exactly why Long Island picked him up from waivers. When he’s on his game, he’s one of the best shooters in the G League, but that’s a big when. Long Island needs these types of performances from Freeman-Liberty.
Davis continued his solid play as he finished second on the team in scoring, tallying 16 points. He connected on six of his 10 shots, including making two of his three from beyond the arc. He flirted with a double-double, hauling in eight rebounds, while also having two assists and a steal to his credit. Davis continues to give fans a lot to be excited about with his play, starting the season off the bench and becoming a major piece of this starting five.
Another player who started the season off the bench but has been light’s out lately is Cattoor. Cattoor has hit a career-high in back-to-back-to-back games. Unfortunately, that streak would end on Saturday night, but not before he still had another impressive performance. Cattoor finished with 15 points, connecting on five of his eight tries, shooting 80% from deep. He also had three rebounds, two assists, and a steal.
Following these three players, everything else was lackluster. David Muoka, who once again got the start, had eight points and hauled in seven rebounds, flirting with a double-double. As for Tre Scott, Scott made his return after missing two games due to an injury, and tallied eight points and hauled in nine rebounds, coming even closer to a double-double.
The final starter, Alex Schumacher, tallied six points, shooting the ball very poorly, connecting on just two of his 11 tries. He also had three rebounds and five assists.
Long Island finished the regular season 18-18.
Next Up
The Long Island Nets finish their season at .500 (18-18). The next stop is the playoffs, where the Long Island team will be matching up with the No. 2-ranked Greensboro Swarm (24-12). It remains to be seen whether any reinforcements will come to Long Island for the G League playoffs. If there are no reinforcements, and this is the squad they send out, come Tuesday or Wednesday, Long Island may be in dire straits. Stay tuned to NetsDaily on socials for the start time of Long Island’s first-round playoff match-up, when it’s made available on Sunday afternoon.
