SAN ANTONIO – Three games into the season and the Nets are already starting to look a bit like a MASH unit after Ziaire Williams was forced out of Sunday’s loss with a lower back contusion following a hard fall.
The attacker’s availability for Monday in Houston is unclear.
“Yeah, tough fall. I wish I could get that game back. There’s nothing I can do about it now, so I’ll just recover and be ready for [Monday]Williams said, unsure of his status with the Rockets. “No. I need to talk to the medical staff, but… hopefully they’ll get me out again.
“Yeah, it definitely hurt. I would never leave the game if I could play. It just got really tight. I couldn’t really go there. So I just have to discuss it with the medical staff. They’re already working on a game plan for me. I’m already frozen and starting my recovery now. So hopefully, with this early game and some recovery and when I get back to the hotel, hopefully I’ll be back.”
Haywood Highsmith (right knee surgery), Drake Powell (right ankle sprain) and Danny Wolf (left ankle sprain) were all out for Sunday’s loss, but Powell and Wolf are day-to-day.
Coach Jordi Fernández said the rookie pair has not been ruled out Monday, and Powell told The Post he will be a game date against the Rockets.
“Yes, it’s actually an everyday thing. So just see how I feel,” Powell told The Post. “I had a workout [Sunday] which I felt pretty good about. So I still just have confidence in our performance team and then, yeah, just keep moving forward. [I’ll be] a decision during the match.”
Cam Thomas, playing through a broken nose, needed stitches over his left eye and ice on his right hand.
“I just have to keep playing, keep pushing. If I’m good enough to play, I’ll be out there playing, so don’t worry. Just basketball,” said Thomas, who opted to play without a mask. “Yes, I thought about it, but in the end it wasn’t that bad. … If I wanted to wear a mask, I could. But in the end, I just take my chances.”
Fernández was called a technical foul with three seconds left, without arguing over a specific decision, but was annoyed by the 12-2 free-throw differential in the fourth quarter, after a 35-7 difference a game earlier.
“It’s just the frustration that they get 12 free throws and we get two. And back-to-back games,” Fernández said. “My guys need to see that I’m fighting for them. The referees need to see that no matter if we have young guys or whoever we play with, we’re going to keep fighting, and that’s who we are. And there’s just a statement there that no matter where we play at home, or play on the road, we’re going to fight and we’re going to fight against everyone.”
The Long Island Nets traded Drew Timme and a 2027 G-League first-round pick for Nate Williams and Oshae Brissett for Jay Scrubb.
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