Last Friday night, the Brooklyn Nets trailed the Cleveland Cavaliers at home by 22 points heading into the fourth quarter but had clawed within four when rookie — and former BYU Cougars star — Egor Demin made a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to one at 121-120 with 3:48 remaining.
The Nets wound up losing 131-124, but Demin was asked by a reporter postgame about the shot, and he said the reaction from the home crowd reminded him of his one season at BYU.
“It was great. It was great,” Demin said. “I think that kind of threw me back to the BYU times with the crowd we had there with the student section, and it was really cool, honestly. I felt a great looking at the stands and seeing people really stand up and cheer for us. It was an amazing moment for me.”
Though the Nets are 0-3 on the young season heading into a Monday night road game against the Houston Rockets in which Demin was ruled out for because of injury management (he has been dealing with a foot injury that kept him out of most of the preseason), the young Russian has been very good — though in perhaps an unexpected way.
Demin has shot 16 shots in three games — all 3-pointers — and has connected on eight of them. This comes as arguably his biggest weakness prior to and during his time at BYU was his 3-point shooting.
Demin is also averaging exactly five rebounds per game so far to go along with 2.3 assists per contest.