LOS ANGELES — The Nets are still winless this season without Cam Johnson, dropping to 0-9 without the floor-space forward after a 102-101 loss to the Lakers on Friday.
It remains to be seen whether Johnson, who missed two straight games with a sprained right ankle, will return to Oklahoma City on Sunday to complete a marathon six-game trip to the Western Conference.
“Yes, it's too early now,” said Jordi Fernandes. “We're doing a great job of trying to stay healthy, working every day and being a group. What we value most is his energy, his voice right now. And now we… There's no reason why we have to make a decision, right? We want all of our players to be 100% healthy and come back, and we'll make a decision whenever the time is right.”
The Nets have also praised Johnson's shooting, making 17 of 38 from deep against the Lakers.
Bojan Bogdanovic, Cam Thomas, De'Anthony Melton, Maxwell Lewis and Trendon Watford are out. Darik Whitehead played for Long Island in the G League.
For the Lakers, Anthony Davis was downgraded from “probable” to “questionable” and out in a matter of minutes due to plantar fasciitis.
LeBron James was available and scored 29 points.
Jared Vanderbilt, Christian Wood, Jalen Hood-Schiffino and former Net Dorian Finney-Smith all sat out. The latter was out for a joyous occasion: the birth of his son.
Ziare Williams scored 15 points and continues to rediscover his shooting stroke.
He also met up with old friend Bronny James and swapped jerseys with his former Sierra Canyon (HS) teammates.
“I got his jersey. It's my brother for life,” Williams said, calling it “an honor” to play against Bronny's famous father, LeBron. “Shout out Bron. That's really cool, dude. That sure looks cool.”
The Empire State Building will be lit up in the Nets' old red, white and blue colors and the number 15 will rotate on the building's spire to commemorate Vince Carter's jersey retirement on January 25th.
The Long Island Nets have signed former Celtic forward O'Shea Brissett, according to Bobby Manning.
The forward was in camp with Team Canada, coached by Fernandes, this summer.
Williams and D'Angelo Russell returned to Los Angeles with the Nets to talk about the deadly wildfires that have killed 27 people and left 82,000 people still evacuated.
“It's pretty sad. Obviously things happen in the world that you can't control,” said Russell, who was with the Lakers twice. “So we know how blessed we are, and we know that we should never take life for granted. We could be gone like this. And to everyone involved: I pray for you.”
“Although we haven't had a chance to see the area that was affected by the fire, we pray for all the families affected and hope that they will use this as a time to just be together and spend a lot of time with their families. “I just pray,” Williams said. “Everything happens for a reason, and sometimes we don't understand why. But I hope everyone is happy, healthy and safe with their families.”
