In 28 minutes during Springfield’s 111-102 win over the Idaho Stampede Thursday night, Nets rookie forward Jordan Williams finished with just six points and six rebounds, shooting 2-5 from the field.
Looking at the box score doesn’t do his performance justice. He was in foul trouble for the majority of the game, which limited his effectiveness.
“I think that was matchups. We got into bad isolations and some fouls were called because of that,” said Springfield Armor head coach Bob MacKinnon. “That’s one of the reasons why he is here: to learn. Hopefully, we learn from this and move on.”
Offensively, he looked to have a bit more legs under him than in his first game with the Armor last week. He ran the floor well, including two different times when he was the first Armor player down the floor on a fast break.
Defensively, like MacKinnon stated, he got in some bad situations and got hit with a couple of cheap foul calls. But he did show some progress defensively.
He looked more determined on the glass than he did in last Thursday’s win over Maine. At one point he went after an Armor missed, ripped the ball away from two Stampede players and then found center Jeff Foote streaking to the basket for a score.
He also picked up a pair of blocks and recorded a steal. He poked the ball away from Idaho point guard David Bailey on a good defensive rotation, which stopped Bailey from getting to the rim.
“He’s running the court, he’s rebounding the ball. He’s attacking on offense,” said MacKinnon. “I think he’s going to be a terrific player for the Nets.”
Overall, Williams made a good impact, but not as impressively as Tuesday in Canton where he had his best game of his assignment, scoring 18 points and grabbing 14 rebounds in a 104-92 win.
