Keon Johnson capitalizing on chance due to Nets slew of injuries

Following the slew of injuries the Nets endured on Saturday, head coach Jordi Fernandez insisted he didn’t want to “overwhelm” his bench too much in filling new roles. “There’s not many different things that we can run if we haven’t practiced or we haven’t had the time,” Fernandez said following the Nets’ 123-94 loss to the 76ers that saw four starters sitting on the bench with injuries. However, he seemingly doesn’t have to worry about that when it comes to Keon Johnson, who has continued to add to his workload since Cam Thomas first suffered a hamstring injury on Nov.25 against the Warriors. Saturday called for more from Johnson once again. On a night without Thomas due to a new hamstring injury as well as Cam Johnson (right ankle sprain) and Ben Simmons (left calf soreness), the 22-year-old shooting guard was deployed at point guard after D’Angelo Russell took a hit to the shin in the first half and sat out the rest of the game. He led the offense with a reshuffled lineup of players that included the new faces of Reece Beekman, who was acquired in the Dennis Schroder trade, and Tosan Evbuomwan, who made his Nets debut after coming up from the Long Island Nets. Johnson scored 15 points, including shooting 2 of 5 from beyond the 3-point line, while tallying eight rebounds, eight assists and a steal across a team-high 36 minutes. For a player that was just hoping for a job at the start of the season, Johnson has shown what he can do as part of the Nets rotation. “I’m always trying to prove myself and just show what I can bring to the league and to the table for my team,” Johnson said Saturday.

“I feel like each night I get more and more comfortable, but my role doesn’t change.It doesn’t waiver.

I know that I come in, play defense, play as hard as I can, and everything goes on [from there].So, that’s what I’m focusing on, night in and night out.” Johnson also credited Fernandez’s way of coaching — an emphasis on...