The Nets’ 19-year-old rookie power forward looked helpless against Kings dynamo Domantas Sabonis over the weekend.
Sacramento’s big man extraordinaire piled up 18 points, 20 rebounds and nine assists against Clowney in the 107-77 beatdown.
Brooklyn interim coach Kevin Ollie intimated afterward that Clowney would grow from the humbling experience and the Nets’ first-round pick did just that in this year’s Barclays swan song.
He had 10 points on 5-of-8 shooting, ripped down seven rebounds and spearheaded Brooklyn to its most blocked shots since moving to our borough in 2012.
Clowney finished one block behind Mike Gminski (1981) and Sean Williams (2007) for the most in a single game by a Nets rookie.
“He came in ready. You never know when opportunity is going to knock on your door,” Ollie said of Clowney, who logged a career-high 39 minutes.
“He took on every challenge we gave him. … He had seven blocks and just the resilience he showed.”
Clowney also knotted the back-and-forth affair at 97-97 on a thunderous dunk with 2:22 remaining in regulation.
His seventh and final block of the night helped protect a 102-100 lead when he swatted Garrett Temple’s layup attempt with 15 ticks left on the clock.
“They kept trying to lay the ball up and I kept blocking it,” said the NBA’s second-youngest player.
“One of the best plays all season,” Ollie added of the game-saving effort.
Former Raptor Dennis Schroder burned his ex-teammates by scoring 15 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter, including four free throws following Clowney’s heroics to seal the deal and send Brooklyn fans out of the building with hope for 2024-25.
“That’s a lot of blocked shots,” Schroder said of his young teammate. “He had so many shots, he just changed without getting a piece. As a rookie I…
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