Brooklyn Nets guard Cam Thomas returned on Friday following a two-month absence due to a hamstring injury. The fourth-year guard played 21 minutes during a 121-102 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers, posting 16 points on 7-of-17 shooting with one assist and three turnovers.
After missing six weeks with a hamstring injury earlier in the season, Thomas returned for two games before re-injuring the same leg during a Jan. 2 win over the Milwaukee Bucks. His 57-day absence was the longest of his career.
Cam Thomas returns to action for Nets during loss to Trail Blazers
And it felt like it.
“It felt really long. I’ve never been out this long ever. So it was definitely an adjustment,” Thomas said. “I’m just doing everything more diligently and taking more time. Being patient with it, not rushing. That’s probably the main thing. Just being more diligent with it so it doesn’t happen again.
I’m not going to overthink, overdo anything. Just do what I’ve been doing. But it was just more so just being more patient with it during the rehab. The rehab was the most important thing. But now it’s all good. I’m fine.”
Growing pains were evident, and expected, during Thomas’ return. The 24-year-old hunted his shot but posted only one assist. Brooklyn’s offense was stagnant, posting 20 on assists on 7-of-29 (24.1 percent) shooting from three after tallying 31 on 23-of-61 (37.7 percent) during Wednesday’s loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Nets struggled to slow the Trail Blazers’ offense down, allowing them to shoot 45-of-78 (57.7 percent) from the field and 15-of-36 (41.7 percent) from three.
“He got up 17 shots in 21 minutes. He got open, that’s what he does. He still needs to keep playing to get his conditioning and get to more minutes. We’re gonna keep working,” said head coach Jordi Fernandez. “But again, I want him to score, playmake, and defend. We’ll hold each other accountable to be better. It was great to have him on the court, great to see that he was able to get those shots up. And I’m pretty sure that he wants to be better and wants to help the team.”
Thomas’ shot creation had been the missing ingredient for a Nets team that ranked third in defense but 28th in offense during a 7-4 stretch entering Friday. The 24-year-old had averaged 24.7 points on 45/38/88 shooting splits over 19 appearances before his latest injury.
Harnessing that elite scoring ability will be among Fernandez’s top tasks as Brooklyn pushes for the Eastern Conference’s final play-in spot over the season’s final 24 games. If he and his team hope to achieve that goal, they’ll have to be far better than what they put on tape Friday night.
“Portland was the better team tonight… They played hard all 48 minutes, and we did not play hard consistently, and that [result] is what happens [when you do that] in the NBA,” Fernandez said. “And if we don’t understand that, we have 23 games here to play as hard as we can for 48 minutes as a group with no excuses. There’s gonna be nights that the other team is better than you, then you can be ok with it.
Tonight, I am the first one [to say], I have to be better, I have to help them be better. It is not the first time that we don’t show up from the beginning, then we wake up a little bit, and it’s not good enough. This is not who we want to be. We’re winning our identity. As I always say, winning starts now, and this is not the way.”
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