CHICAGO — Day’Ron Sharpe finally made his season debut Monday night.
After working back from a hamstring injury since training camp, the backup center suited up and contributed four points, two rebounds and two assists in 16 minutes.
His stint drew praise from coach Jordi Fernandez but left the big man himself unimpressed.
“My second stint, I was tired, I’m not going to lie. But I’m getting my wind back. After that I thought I was good,” Sharpe said. “But me personally, I feel like I played [terribly]. But that’s the first game, so just keep building from here.”
The Nets losing, 128-102, put a damper on Sharpe’s first action since April.
“It just felt good to be back on the court and in general. But the outcome of the game really spoiled the moment,” Sharpe said. “So, hopefully next game we’ll get a win, and it’ll feel even better.”
His return couldn’t have come at a better time for the Nets and their injury-riddled frontcourt, the NBA’s worst rebounding team getting back one of the league’s best rebounders.
Nic Claxton, for one was happy to have Sharpe back
“It was good. Definitely good to see,” Claxton said. “He’s been grinding [and] working. Working real hard to get back from a tough hamstring injury. So it’s nice to have the twin towers back.”
Fernandez agreed.
“I love his energy, his pick-and-roll defense, his aggressiveness,” the coach said. “He’s going to keep getting better. I believe it because I’ve seen it since the first day I’ve been in the gym. Great attitude, great energy. And that was great to see him on the court.”
Starting forward Cam Johnson sat out with a left ankle sprain after entering as questionable to play.
“[We’re] not extremely concerned,” Fernandez said of Johnson. “Again, I’m not a doctor, but right now he’s a day-to-day. He wanted to try to see how he was feeling, and he’s out. So, we’ll see how he feels [Tuesday] and then we’ll go from there.”
Meanwhile, Bojan Bogdanovic (left foot injury recovery), Noah Clowney (left ankle sprain), Dorian Finney-Smith (left ankle sprain), Ben Simmons (lower back injury management and left knee soreness), Cam Thomas (left hamstring strain), Ziaire Williams (left knee sprain) and Jaylen Martin (G-League) were all out.
“Right now, we will have a better feel on how [Williams] reacts in the next few days to know exactly what that time frame is,” Fernandez said.
Simmons told The Post he should be fine to play Wednesday against the Pacers.
He took a shot to the knee in Sunday’s loss but also still isn’t cleared to play both ends of back-to-backs, so he was never going to play Monday anyway.
“He got hit, and he was dealing with some issues and that’s the reason why he didn’t play, because he got hit. And right now because it’s back-to-back, he’s not going to play. So right now we’ll see how it feels. But, we don’t expect much else,” Fernandez said.
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