BOSTON — A day after Nets swingman Sergey Karasev’s father called the team “a mess” and wondered why his son wasn’t getting any playing time, Brooklyn coach Lionel Hollins gave the little-used Russian some rare burn.
Karasev — who had only played four minutes so far this year — logged 24:03 in Friday’s 120-95, blowout loss to the Celtics. He checked in with 2:32 left in the first quarter, Hollins going to him over Bojan Bogdanovic.
Before the game, Karasev said — despite his father Vasily’s comments that he was unhappy with his lack of playing time and had started pursuing a trade — he doesn’t want to be dealt and is determined to work his way into Hollins’ plans.
He may have done just that, scoring five points on 2-of-4 shooting, hitting 1-of-3 from deep and adding a steal and assist.
“My dad, he’s my biggest fan, so he has his own opinion. I can’t control what he says to the press. A lot of people want that I play, especially back home in Russia, so they have their own opinion,’’ Karasev said. “I’m with the Nets. I love this organization, I like Coach Hollins, so I just keep working hard. I’m just with this team right now. All my focus, all my mind is to win the game. That’s why I’m here.’’
“I talked with [my father] and he said, ‘Yeah, I know, I apologize.’ But … that’s his opinion. I can’t control this. He can say whatever he thinks. That’s not what I’m thinking. We are like thinking different directions.’’
Which is something Hollins — father of several basketball-playing children himself — understood. He brushed the comments off.
“Put it this way: Sergey’s father is a father. I’m a father. I had sons that played basketball. I had a daughter that played basketball. We all want our kids to be first position,’’ Hollins said. “So he has his opinion, and I understand where he’s coming from as a father. But it’s just that: his opinion.’’
The 22-year-old Karasev also spoke with Hollins several days ago about what he needed to do to earn more playing time.
“[Hollins] said I need to be more aggressive on the court and that’s what I try to do right now. I try to work hard every day. I work on my conditioning because … .you need to be in shape every day to be ready, because that’s why you have 15 players on the roster,’’ Karasev said. “I talked with him, and he said he likes how I worked the last practices, so I think I go in the right direction.’’
Rookie Rondae Hollis-Jefferson scored a career-high 13 points and 11 rebounds. He had his first career double-double and first career 3-pointer.
Bogdanovic might have lost minutes to Karasev, but he did at least break his drought. The struggling swingman scored nine points on 3-of-7 shooting, after going scoreless in 17:53 at Charlotte and in 22:16 against Atlanta. He hadn’t scored since last weekend at Golden State, when he went 1-for-6.