G League Watch: Long Island Nets Fail to Make Playoffs

The Long Island Nets finished their G League regular season with a 17-17 record after completing their March schedule with a pair of losses at home to the Cleveland Charge, the Cavaliers’ affiliate team.

The first round of the G League playoffs will start on April 1, with the finals being played between April 8 and 14. The top six seeds of each conference make the G League postseason. Long Island's record (10th) wasn't good enough for the playoffs this year. Last season, the team made the Eastern Conference Finals.

Drew Timme, who has made all the headlines with the Brooklyn Nets since signing a two-year deal with the team this week, dropped 50 points on March 22 to lead Long Island to an overtime win. The Nets outscored the Cruise 17-5 to take the game to overtime before Timme wrapped up proceedings by scoring all of his team's points in the extra period.

Other Nets in Brooklyn’s system were active in the G League. Dariq Whitehead had 14 points on 5-for-6 shooting in 23 minutes, Tosan Evbuomwan had 20 points on 7-for-10 shooting, five rebounds and four assists in 26 minutes, Tyson Etienne had 19 points on 6-for-18 shooting in 43 minutes) and Killian Hayes had 18 points, six rebounds, seven assists and only one turnover in 21 minutes.

Etienne, the Nets’ most recent two-way signing, paced Long Island to a 127-122 win against the Raptors 905 on March 25 with 30 points in 32 minutes. Hayes followed with 20 points, while Evbuomwan, Timme, Beekman and reserve sparkplug Terry Roberts all scored in the double digits with 19, 14, 17 and 18 points, respectively.

However, Long Island’s fortunes turned to end the month with back-to-back losses against the Charge on March 28 and 29. The Nets were dealing with a depleted roster. Beekman, Evbuomwan, Hayes and Etienne were all inactive. Timme was with Brooklyn’s main team at this point.

In the first game against Cleveland, Trevon Scott and Chris Martin led Long Island in points with 22. Kevin Obanor pitched in with 20. The latter part of the back-to-back was also a defeat. Former Villanova guard Mark Armstrong had a team-high minutes and points with 44 and 30. That also marked his career-best. Jordan Minor had 25 points; however, five of the Nets' eight active players scored less than 10 points.

Even though Long Island didn’t make the G League playoffs, there are still players in the organization’s overall ecosystem worth tracking until the end of the NBA season in Timme, Whitehead, Evbuomwan, Etienne and Beekman. Brooklyn’s next game is on Monday night on the road against the Dallas Mavericks.