MIAMI — First, Day’Ron Sharpe impressed the Nets with a solid offseason.
Then came a strong training camp and preseason.
Now it’s time to do it for real.
Sharpe closed out the preseason with a 19-point, 11-rebound, three-block effort, lifting the Nets to a 107-104 victory over the Heat on Wednesday night.
His 3-pointer with 1:49 gave the Nets the lead for good.
The third-year center, a career .572 free-throw shooter, even went an encouraging 6-for-6 from the foul line.
That didn’t go unnoticed by coach Jacque Vaughn.
“Yeah, three things that [I] said after the game,” Vaughn said. “I told the guys what time the bus time was, that was one. Then the second one was: Day’Ron Sharpe, way to make your free throws. That was two. And the third one was they were out he was looking over at me like you were tired, but then that 3-ball came and you shot that thing so you weren’t that tired. Those three things after the game.
“So, very impressed with that young man. He’s put in the work and to be accountable to step up and shoot two free throws, whether it’s preseason, regular season, there was still some pressure on the line. So reward his work, and happy for him.”
The 6-foot-9, 260-pound Sharpe, who has improved enough to convince Vaughn to switch to more drop-coverage in order to get him on the court, had looked winded before he hit the clutch 3.
“I told him, shoot, a little break. A little rest? But when it’s time to play, I’m going to play hard, if I’m tired or not,” said Sharpe, who has made a strong case for playing time behind starter Nic Claxton.
“Personally, I just feel like last year I did the same thing during preseason. I don’t know about training camp, but in preseason I did the same thing. So I’m glad I played good, but at the end of the day, I’ve got to do that [crap] during the season. So right now, I’m ready for the season to start so I can just show people I can do it during the season, too. Preseason really doesn’t matter.”
Mikal Bridges had 11 points on 5 of 14 shooting.
He has had a quiet preseason, but that’s because after the Nets simply ran the same sets for him last season that they’d used for Kevin Durant, they haven’t installed anything for him yet.
“Yeah, I guess I can reveal that we haven’t really put any sets in from Mikal yet,” Vaughn said. “So really, I’ve been trying to just get us to understand how to change sides of the floor with the basketball, play concept basketball. So we’ve been really focused on that. Probably only the plays we put in is a few side out-of-bounds and out-of-bounds-underneath.
“I think we’ll use this time from here to the first game to get some sets in that put Mikal in positions to be successful. But really, that was the strategy. We’ve got to learn how to play with Nic and Ben [Simmons] in the spacing, concept basketball, how to play with each other for each other, how to get each other open. So that’s been really the emphasis so far, which has been good to see.”
Cam Johnson (hamstring) is expected to practice Saturday.
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