Nets forward Noah Clowney missed Monday’s home game against the Memphis Grizzlies because of right hip soreness. The second-year standout played 17 minutes off the bench in Sunday’s 106-92 loss to the Detroit Pistons and finished with four points and two rebounds.
Clowney likely suffered his injury late in the fourth quarter against the Pistons, after he collided with Detroit’s Jalen Duren.
Clowney underwent an MRI exam Monday morning, and the results were “clean”, according to head coach Jordi Fernandez. However, the 20-year-old came out of Sunday’s game “bruised” and “sore”, so he was held out of Monday’s game for precautionary reasons. Fernandez said that Clowney will return to the court soon, but did not confirm when that will be.
With 6-9 Clowney out, 6-9 Day’Ron Sharpe sidelined indefinitely, and 6-11 Nic Claxton still on a minutes restriction, the Nets were once again forced to embrace small ball against Grizzlies. Brooklyn was also without 6-10 Ben Simmons on Monday.
“I don’t think we have time to grow [taller] right now,” Fernandez said. “I think our effort has to be on point. We have to cover for each other. Obviously not ideal that Ben is out with a back-to-back and then Noah out with the soreness. We’re just smaller now, but I’m pretty sure that we all can cover with effort covering for one another.”
Clowney, the 21st overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, has averaged 6.1 points and 3.3 rebounds across seven games this season while shooting 31.8% from the field and 29.2% from 3-point range. While some may be concerned about those percentages, Fernandez is not. He views them as growing pains that will eventually be resolved.
“I’m worried about him taking the right shots and being confident and let it fly,” Fernandez said of Clowney. “I think he’s been doing that. Be aggressive defensively, be the one that hits first. Obviously, at 20 years old, you don’t know until you know. And going through games and minutes and experience is very important.
“You’re going to get thrown into the fire, you’re going to have to figure it out, and if we’re asking you to take a good shot when you have a good shot, don’t pass it and let it fly. And the one thing he’s doing, he’s been decisive, he’s shooting it. And the percentages, I don’t care, because the sample size right now is so, so small that when he takes 100, 200 more shots, then everything will even out, and all those shots are going to go in.”
CLAXTON RETURNS TO STARTING LINEUP
After coming off the bench in each of his first six appearances of 2024-25, Claxton finally returned to the starting lineup on Monday. Brooklyn was being cautious with the center’s usage after he missed the entire preseason because of a hamstring injury. With Clowney, Simmons and Sharpe out, perhaps Fernandez had no choice but to insert Claxton back into the starting lineup to give the team some much-needed size.
Claxton, who signed a four-year, $100 million extension with the Nets over the summer, was averaging just 21.7 minutes per game entering Monday’s matchup with Memphis. However, he still led the team in total blocks (seven), total rebounds (43) and was plus-28 across his first six appearances, the second-best plus/minus on the Nets behind Jalen Wilson (plus-28).
SCHEDULE
The Nets entered Monday’s game with a 3-4 record. They played four games last week, Monday’s matchup with Memphis was the second game of this week, then they will begin a three-game road trip on Friday where they will face the Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers and New Orleans Pelicans. Next week will end with two games in three days against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
“Games keep coming,” Fernandez said. “That’s the beauty of the NBA… so far, I’m happy with how well we’ve competed so far. We just want to keep getting better. And that was the message from today for today, is there’s a lot of things that we could have done better yesterday… They keep coming. We’ll be ready for whoever is in front of us.”
