At the end of Monday’s game in Phoenix, D’Angelo Russell could have stood at halfcourt and reprised Paul Pierce’s (only) memorable line from his time in Brooklyn.
“This is why they brought me here,” Pierce shouted after he blocked Kyle Lowry’s last second shot in the Nets Game 7 win over Toronto in the 2014 playoffs.
And Russell’s fourth quarter performance in a lesser, worse played game Monday is why Sean Marks brought him here. All of 21 years old, D’Angelo Russell knows how to take over a game, star it up, and win.