Brooklyn Nets will give Kevin Garnett rest day
By Corey Leahy
The Brooklyn Nets have decided to give PF Kevin Garnett the night off on Friday, to recover and rest from the team’s last game. From ESPN,
"“We thought tonight would be a good game to give him some rest after giving him 12 minutes in that fourth quarter (Wednesday night),” coach Jason Kidd said."
Garnett has been a big part of the Nets’ workload this season, and has played a lot recently.
"Garnett, 37, is averaging 6.5 points and 7.2 rebounds on 37.9 percent shooting in 22.1 minutes per game. He played 25 minutes in Wednesday night’s 113-107 loss to the Washington Wizards– including the entire fourth quarter. “He’s a competitor. He wants to compete. He wants to help this team win,” Kidd said. “But I think he understands why I’m giving him the rest day with all the time he spent on the court in that last game, I felt he deserved to have some time off.”Statistically, the Nets (9-16) are 5.9 points per 100 possessions better offensively without Garnett on the court as opposed to with him (105.0 to 99.1). Defensively, though, they are 2.4 points per 100 possessions worse (104.9 to 107.3)."
The decision to bench Garnett to give him a full day’s rest is going to pay off for Brooklyn. They are going to need him in the near future to be as healthy as they can in order to help them make a serious push as we are heading toward the next portion of the season.