WASHINGTON — They say it is not who starts, but who finishes. And after being briefly banished from the rotation and relegated to the bench, Randy Foye is back playing for the Nets — and even making heart-stopping plays in crunch time.
After draining a buzzer-beating 3 to knock off the Hornets in Brooklyn on Monday, the veteran guard scored a season-high 11 points and logged 28:25 off the bench Wednesday in Chicago, the third-most minutes on the team. He was on the floor down the stretch, and has impressed coach Kenny Atkinson.
“He organizes us a little better,” Atkinson said ahead of Friday’s game against the Wizards at Verizon Center. “He just has that experience, that NBA savvy of being in the league, being able to read plays defensively, read plays offensively. It gives our young guys confidence too, that there’s a guy out there who’s coaching them and talking to them.
“I love it during free throws that he’s out there talking to Caris [LeVert] and those guys. Quite honestly, that’s sometimes more valuable than what I have to say. Just watching tape [Thursday] morning, there’s a lot of subtle things he brings to the table.”
Foye, a 33-year-old Newark native, took pride in bringing those subtler things to Brooklyn when the Nets signed him this summer. But a strained hamstring two days before the season opener set him back.
“Yeah, I took pride in it from the beginning, but I got injured and I was unable to play,’’ Foye said. “Then I came back, guys had some big games, so I came in and just tried to best fill a role. But now it feels as though I’m coming around and I’m starting to play all right. I know I can play better.
“That [injury] set me back. I sat out for two weeks, but the conditioning part is another two weeks. To tell you the truth, I just feel I’m starting to come around right now.”
And right now, as irony — and injuries — would have it, Foye is back in the rotation thanks to another hamstring strain.
Foye didn’t play in four straight games when Jeremy Lin returned from his first hamstring strain. He got only token minutes the next three when Isaiah Whitehead went out with foot soreness, but followed that with the highlight-reel game-winner Monday (his only made basket of the game) and a more complete outing Wednesday.
Foye slowed the Nets’ tempo when they got out of control, provided much-needed physicality on defense and — after two years with Blake Griffin in L.A., and last season with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook in Oklahoma City — showed an instinct for accentuating a star and thriving off a double-team.
Brook Lopez’s 33 points were the proof.
“Especially the way Brook is playing, getting guys in the right spaces and just being in the situations to play with dominant bigs before like Blake Griffin,’’ Foye said. “I played with him, last year being with Russell and KD, and seeing the double team and just knowing you’ve got to have the right spacing.
“That’s just my main focus when I’m out there, just having the right spacing. If you have the right spacing, those shots [the star] is going to get — that we’re going to get if they come on Brook — are going to be so much easier.”
Foye’s physicality with Rajon Rondo and Dwyane Wade also helped the Nets hold the Bulls to 39.8 percent shooting. Even with off-guard Bradley Beal (ankle) listed as questionable, the fast-breaking Wizards are a different, speedier challenge.
“Speed demons. Randy will give you kind of corporate knowledge of the league and what guys can do,’’ Atkinson said. “If a guy’s a super driver, Randy knows how to close out shorter. The young guys really don’t know; they’re just going to do what they’re going to do. Just his intelligence is part of the NBA experience.”
Joe Harris (hip) was limited to no contact in practice Thursday and is questionable.