The New Jersey Nets got double-doubles from Derrick Favors and Connor Atchley, which proved to be enough to soundly defeat the Boston Celtics, 86-68, in their final games of the Orlando Pro Summer League. Favors scored 23 points, grabbed 11 rebounds, and wowed the crowd of journalists and team officials with a variety of athletic slams in traffic in wha was his best performance of the League by far. Atchley, meanwhile, added 10 points and 13 rebounds off the bench. Once again, Boston struggled to find any offense outside of rookie forward Luke Harangody, who scored 18 points on seven-of-17 shooting.
Favors’ eruption, not coincidentally, occurred in the same game the Nets essentialy benched Terrence Williams, who handled the point guard chores through the first four days. Williams’ passing skills need improvement, and without anyone to feed him the ball, Favors languished in mediocrity early on. Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress explains the situation in this Twitter message:
I don’t blame T-Will, I blame the Nets. Why not put a pure point next to Favors and spoon-feed him all summer league? Build his confidence.
Williams played just five minutes, and even then he was off the ball, not initiating the offense. That task fell to Brandon Heath, who tallied six assists and no turnovers in 32 minutes. He also made three of his five three-pointers.
Favors and Atchley combined for 24 rebounds, just three shy of the Celtics’ total. In helping the Nets control the glass, they minimized Boston’s opportunities to convert on a day they shot only 42.3% from the floor.