Cameron Johnson is enjoying the best season of his six-year career, putting together performances that not only help the Brooklyn Nets win some games, but perhaps increase his trade value, as well.
As the rumors continue to swirl around Johnson, his next opportunity to produce another big game is Saturday night when the Nets host the Utah Jazz, the second-worst team in the Western Conference.
Johnson is averaging 19.2 points on 48.9 percent shooting from the field and 43.1 percent shooting from 3. All of those marks would be career highs for a season. He has scored at least 20 in five of his past six games and averaging 24.2 points per game on 49.4 percent shooting in that span. He also is shooting 50.9 percent over his past 21 games.
Johnson scored 22 in Brooklyn's 130-101 home loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday after Dennis Schroder was traded to the Golden State Warriors for three second-round picks. He followed that up Thursday with 33 points in a 101-94 win over the Toronto Raptors. Johnson's big game occurred when no teammate scored more than 12 and the Nets shot 40.2 percent, their third-lowest mark this season.
"Just really trying to win the game is really what it comes down to," Johnson said after also collecting 10 rebounds and six assists. "We didn't have a good feeling after that Cleveland game, so we wanted to make sure we came out here and got a dub. To get a win like this (is big)."
However, Brooklyn has lost six of its last eight games.
Utah currently has better lottery odds than the 11-16 Nets since its 6-20 mark is the third-worst in the NBA behind the Washington Wizards and New Orleans Pelicans.
The Jazz are 6-14 since starting off with six straight losses and are seeking consecutive wins for the first time since April 11-12 last season.
After allowing 144 points in Monday's 37-point loss to the Clippers in Los Angeles, Utah pulled off a 126-119 road win over the Detroit Pistons on Thursday that improved them to 5-6 when allowing less than 120 points.
Utah's win was much closer than coach Will Hardy would have hoped, since the Jazz outscored Detroit 48-19 in the first quarter (after getting outscored 44-20 in the opening quarter Monday).
The win wound up being closer because the Jazz committed 24 of their 27 turnovers in the final three quarters, their 10th game with at least 20 giveaways. Utah's win also featured Jordan Clarkson getting ejected for shoving Paul Reed in the third quarter.
"It was super physical, chippy, ugly, nasty," Hardy said. "There's turnovers, there's fouls, there's fights, there's a level of tension in the game and in the arena that we really haven't seen this year."
Collin Sexton is coming off a season-high 30 points, ending a span of seven straight where he was held under 20. The Jazz are also seeing improvement from second-year guard Keyonte George, who is averaging 18.1 points in his past seven after finishing with 28 in Detroit.
--Field Level Media
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