This one may very well become known as the \u201cBen Saraf Coming Out\u201d game. Saraf exploded for a career-high game in a number of aspects Monday afternoon leading his Long Island Nets to a big win in the G League Showcase with a 40-point, six 3-pointer extravaganza in Brooklyn\u2019s 116-97 win over the Oklahoma City Blue.<\/p>\n
Shortly after the game, Brooklyn rewarded Saraf, recalling him to Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
Saraf shot 14-of-26 overall and hit six of 10 from deep as Long Island won its first game in the Showcase which brought all 31 G League teams to Orlando over the past four days.<\/p>\n
Saraf was one of three Long Islanders to break the 20-point barrier. Nets two-way E.J. Liddell, the 6\u20196\u201d 240-pound power forward finished with 25 along with 14 boards and three steals Nate Williams, the 6\u20196\u2019 wing had 20 points.<\/p>\n
Saraf had arguably one of the best rookie performances from a Nets G League performer, trumping all of Nolan Traore\u2019s recent shooting performances which led to big minutes on Sunday night in Brooklyn. Saraf finished this game connecting on 14 of his 26 shot attempts, including going six-of-10 from beyond the arc, for 40 points. All of these numbers marked career-highs for the 19-year-old, Israeli basketball star \u2014 the 26th pick in the 2025 Draft and the eighth youngest player under contract in the NBA. He also bested Dariq Whitehead who had 26 points for Oklahoma City, his best game since joining the Blue following his waiver by the Nets back in October.<\/p>\n
His last time on the court on Saturday, Saraf connected on three of his eight shots for a mere seven points. That performance was one of a series of poor shooting performances in recent games. Saraf seemingly got all of that out of his system and looked exactly like the player that Brooklyn drafted in the 2025 NBA Draft, a combo guard with a scoring bent. A little more than a year ago, he averaged 28.1 points for Israel in the FIBA Europe\u2019s U19 tournament, winning MVP honors. Two years earlier, Saraf averaged 24.3 for the Israeli junior national team in FIBA Europe\u2019s U16 tournament.<\/p>\n
This shooting performance was only 12 points shy of the G League record for Nets rookies held by Isaiah Whitehead (no relation,) who had 52 points in a single game back in February 2018. The game has to feel good for Saraf, who can certainly use this game as a \u201cget back on track\u201d type of game. Saraf picked up six rebounds, four assists, and one steal in this one, on top of his 40-berger.<\/p>\n
While Saraf is often looked at as the \u201cforgotten\u201d rookie, this showing by the 19-year-old that he\u2019s still very much here. The potential is without a doubt still there for Saraf, and while not every game will be a 40-point showing, this was an excellent example of what Saraf can look like when he\u2019s at the top of his game, and is exactly why Brooklyn took a chance on him in the first place.<\/p>\n
Liddell, also looked great in this one,having arguably his best game yet when it came to shooting the ball, as he connected on nine of his 15 shots, including going one-for-two from beyond the arc. Beyond scoring, Liddell was dominant on the boards in this one, picking up 14 rebounds for yet another double-double. Of the 14 rebounds, Liddell hauled seven offensively. He also had and assist and three steals to his credit.<\/p>\n
The other Brooklyn two-way player, Tyson Etienne, had a very average game by his standards. Etienne finished with 13 points, two rebounds, one assist, and one steal. While these numbers aren\u2019t necessarily bad, Etienne was only able to connect on four of his 14 shots, including going four-of-12 from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n
Yuri Collins whiffed on all nine of his shot attempts. Despite a big goose egg in the point column, the 6\u20190\u201d point guard contributed in other ways, picking up four rebounds, six assists, two steals, and even had a block.<\/p>\n
Whitehead, who\u2019s making his presence felt on a new team, had 26 points to his credit plus four rebounds, seven assists, three steals, and a block. Whitehead is still trying to find his path back to the NBA after it failed to work out for him as a part of the Nets organization.<\/p>\n
One of the big positives to come out of this game as a whole was that Long Island reached a milestone. OKC\u2019s 33 turnovers were a franchise record for Long Island.<\/p>\n
Final Score: Long Island Nets 116, Oklahoma City Blue 95.<\/p>\n
The Long Island Nets (1-1) have finished their G League Showcase games, as they now head home for Christmas before traveling to Atlanta to face off with the College Park Skyhawks on Sunday, December 28th. The game tips off at 3:00 p.m. EST and can be watched on NBA TV.<\/p>\n
Box Score: Long Island Nets 116, Oklahoma City Blue 95<\/a> – G LeagueFull Game: Long Island Nets 116, Oklahoma City Blue 95 (Video)<\/a> – G League<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This one may very well become known as the \u201cBen Saraf Coming Out\u201d game. Saraf exploded for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,4049,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-78576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-long-island-nets","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}