Jordi Fernandez Praises Nic Claxton and Day'Ron Sharpe's Effort Against Hornets

On Monday night, the Brooklyn Nets welcomed the Charlotte Hornets into the Barclays Center, looking to build on their win against the Miami Heat earlier on in the week.

They would get off to a hot start, outscoring the Hornets 34-30 in the opening quarter, thanks in large part to a Ziare Williams and Trendon Watford finding early success from the field.

With LaMelo Ball exiting the match after ten minutes on the court, Brooklyn put their offensive engine in overdrive, extending their lead to 12 points at the half, with the rest of the match going the way of the home team.

While the aforementioned Williams and Watford managed to carry the Nets' early on through the match, Nic Claxton and Day'Ron Sharpe picked up the slack when needed.

Claxton ended the night with a team-high 16 points, while Sharpe came off the bench to drop 14 points and come away with seven offensive rebounds.

Yet it wasn't their work on the Hornets' side of the court that caught the eye of Brooklyn head coach Jordi Fernandez, as he was more than happy with their work on the defensive end, managing to impose their dominance over the likes of Moussa Diabate and Taj Gibson, amongst others.

"It goes back to being the anchor of the defense, obviously they play on both ends, but starting with their communication, their presence, their physicality and they've both done a great job," explained Fernandez. "I'm happy to see that they're owning that part and it's on them to get everyone going, to start our defense, yes the ball pressure has to be there from the guards or whoever guards the ball handlers."

One of the recent narratives hovering around the Nets is surrounding their improvement on the defensive end, which could be seen by their two centers on Monday night, with the duo combining for three blocks and two steals.

It shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to see this level of production from a player of Claxton's caliber, a player who finished in the top ten for the 2023 NBA Defensive Player of the Year award, sharing the ninth spot with that year's Most Valuable Player, the Philadelphia 76ers' Joel Embiid.

In Sharpe's case, it may be becoming more and more clear that he is finally seeing development on the defensive side of his game, averaging a block per game across his last five appearances, which included his shot-stopping masterclass against the Houston Rockets, whom he swatted away three attempts.

Regardless of how they're doing on the court, it's something that Fernandez doesn't want them to get bogged down in, and would rather see them continue to develop across the remainder of the season.

"These guys have done a very good job and I want to see that for 29 more games," explained the Nets' head coach, "Keep getting better... credit to them, both of them have been really really good."

Brooklyn will look to extend their ongoing win streak to three games on Wednesday night, when they welcome the 76ers into the Barclays Center, with tip-off slated for 7:30 p.m. EST.

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