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OKLAHOMA CITY — In Ziaire Williams, the rebuilding Nets took a flier on a former lottery pick as a salary dump.
He’s an athletic floor-running defender whose jumper has been his weakness. But if he can keep shooting the way he has lately, their gamble might come good.
“He’s done a great job in the gym, and he’s put his work in, and that’s why he has the confidence. And that’s pretty simple,” coach Jordi Fernandez said. “And you see it, he was out for a little bit, and he worked a lot. It’s a lot of reps. And then coming into the game and being confident.
“We know his superpower is his length and defensive intensity, but we also need him to do that, to take the right shots. And he’s doing it. So, he’s doing a great job.”
Williams had 15 points, four rebounds, three assists and a block in 25 minutes in a 102-101 loss to the Lakers on Friday night in Los Angeles.
The forward has shot 40.8 percent from deep in nine games played since a 12-game injury absence, hitting multiple 3-pointers in all but two of those nine contests. Before the injury layoff, he’d managed just 27.3 percent and five multiple 3-point outings.
“Yeah, man, shoot, they tell me constantly shoot, shoot, shoot,” said Williams, still just 23. “So, I’ve got to be the one to believe in myself. And yes, it’s good out there. It feels good right now. And I’m just trying to just stay in this rhythm.”
Keon Johnson has cracked double-figure scoring in a career-high eight games.
Tosan Evbuomwan had 15 points on 6-for-10 shooting against the Lakers, adding six boards, two assists and a steal in 27 minutes.
The two-way forward has reached double-figure scoring in five of the past six games since Jan. 8. In that span he’s averaged 12.8 points on 58.3 percent shooting and 37.5 percent from deep in 24.8 minutes to lead the bench.
“We trust each other and take the right shots,” Evbuomwan said of the bench. “Ben [Simmons] and [D’Angelo Russell] do a great job as point guards, putting us in the right spots, making it easier for us. So, lot of credit to those guys. They push the pace well and they find us, so yeah that’s how it worked.”
With president-elect Donald Trump set to be inaugurated Monday and vowing to impose tariffs on Chinese exports, Nets owner Joe Tsai— who is the chairman and co-founder of Chinese giant Alibaba — weighed in.
“Right now, this is, I could say definitively, the most unfriendly geopolitical environment that we’ve been in,” Tsai said this week at the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong. “As a Chinese company, if we want to do business in the U.S., we’re gonna get hit by whatever it may be, [including] tariffs.”
Oshae Brissett, who won a title with the Celtics in June, has inked with the G League Long Island Nets. He was in Team Canada camp under Fernandez.
