LOS ANGELES — The Nets are still winless this season without Cam Johnson, falling to 0-9 without their floor-spacing forward after Friday’s 102-101 loss to the Lakers.
It remains to be seen if Johnson — who missed a second straight game with a sprained right ankle — will be back Sunday at Oklahoma City to end this marathon six-game Western Conference road trek.
“Yeah, it’s too early right now,” Jordi Fernandez said. “We do a great job with trying to get healthy and working every day and being around with a group. That’s what we value the most is his energy, his voice right now. And right now, there’s no reason why we should make a decision, right? We want all our guys to be 100 percent healthy to come back, and whenever the time comes, we’ll make a decision.”
The Nets also value Johnson’s shooting, though they did go 17-of-38 from deep against the Lakers.
Bojan Bogdanovic, Cam Thomas, DeAnthony Melton, Maxwell Lewis, and Trendon Watford were out. Dariq Whitehead was with G League Long Island.
For the Lakers, Anthony Davis was downgraded from probable to questionable to out in a matter of minutes with plantar fasciitis.
LeBron James was available and had 29 points.
Jarred Vanderbilt, Christian Wood, Jalen Hood-Schifino and ex-Net Dorian Finney-Smith were all out. The latter was out for a joyous occasion, the birth of his son.
Ziaire Williams had 15 points and continues to rediscover his shooting stroke.
He also met up with old pal Bronny James and exchanged jerseys with his ex-Sierra Canyon (HS) teammate.
“I got his jersey. That’s my brother for life,” said Williams, who called facing Bronny’s famous father LeBron ‘an honor.’ “Shout out Bron. It’s really cool, man. It’s cool for sure.”
