D'Angelo Russell has been the enigma in whom the Nets invested heavily to figure out but have been unable to solve.
The only thing consistent about his performances in his season-plus in Brooklyn (well, make that his three-plus-season NBA career) has been his inconsistency.
Placed under the care of the Nets' development program after his trade from the Lakers in the summer of 2017, Russell, 22, hasn't been able to escape the good game/bad game pattern this season.
We just don't know which Russell will show up on a given night -- the one who torched the Sixers for 38 points in Sunday's 127-125 heartbreaking home loss to Philadelphia, or the one who went 6-for-25 as the Nets again discombobulated down the stretch of a 101-91 defeat to visiting Utah on Wednesday night.
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However, we usually don't have to wait very long to find out. By the end of the first quarter, we kind of know.
In almost every case, a good first quarter by Russell has led to a good, efficient game. And the converse has also been true, with maybe two exceptions.
Against the Sixers, Russell knocked down five of his first seven shots, tallying 11 points in the first quarter. He went on to finish 16-for-28 from the floor, with eight rebounds, eight assists and only one turnover.
On the other side of the ledger, Russell was off on five of six field-goal attempts in Wednesday's first quarter. Though he ended up with seven assists, he never found his shot.
Both Russell and Nets coach Kenny Atkinson credited the Jazz's stingy defense, but in my view, Russell just appeared to be spooked by Utah's mammoth center, Rudy Gobert. Russell seemed to be able to get his defender, usually Jazz point guard Ricky Rubio, on his hip many times as is his preference. However, Russell seemed hesitant about his plan to finish with Gobert always lurking (since the NBA must have suspended the defensive three-second rule for the evening).
Gobert's presence protecting the paint allowed Utah's other defenders to stick with their men to eliminate potential kickouts. Hence, Brooklyn's 20 turnovers, of which Russell committed four.
"I think all-around team defense -- I thought (the Jazz) did a good job of that," Russell said. "(Gobert) is definitely a reason they're a top defensive team."
Russell also went 1-for-6 in the fourth quarter as the Nets saw an eight-point lead at the start of the period disintegrate quickly and then appeared helpless when the Jazz went on a 19-7 run in the final 6:23.
I'm not going to speculate about any psychological reasons behind Russell's apparent first-quarter dependency or even guarantee that it will continue. But here are the facts:
In the nine games that Russell has scored at least 20 points, he has shot a combined 29-for-49 (59 percent) from the field and 12-for-20 (60 percent) from 3-point range in those first quarters, averaging 7.2 points per quarter. While that pace couldn't be sustainable for full games, he did manage to finish with 51.5/50 percent shooting percentages in those nine contests. That's quite good.
In his other 13 games, his corresponding shooting numbers in first quarters have been 22-for-67 (32.8 percent) and 3-for-20 (15 percent), for a 4.6 points-per-quarter average. Over those full games, the shooting percentages have been 31.8/24 percent. That's not so good.
When asked if he knew of this statistical tendency at Monday's practice, Atkinson said, "Make sure you tell (Russell) that. I think aggressive early is huge for him. From the get-go (Sunday), he was putting his head down and driving it, and his pace was superb. But I think it's that consistency we talked about -- that consistent focus, consistent physical preparation, all that. He was special last night, and a lot of it stems from his early attacking attitude."
Again, I thought Russell came out with an attacking mindset Wednesday, but the Jazz stifled it. Without Caris LeVert, who was beginning to develop into a go-to scorer for Brooklyn before an ankle injury on Nov. 12 sent him to the sidelines until further notice, Jazz coach Quinn Snyder was able to put more attention into stopping Russell.
"(Russell) can score on multiple levels," Snyder said before Wednesday's game. "He's very, very good in pick-and-roll -- they run a lot of pick-and-roll for him. He's able to make plays for other people as well as just score. He's just a very talented offensive player."
Russell's most productive nights haven't always translated into Nets' victories -- they're just 4-5 in the aforementioned nine games. However, none of those five defeats were to opponents under .500 (the combined winning percentage of the five teams is .606), and in four of the losses, the games were within a five-point margin in the last five minutes. Considering two of them (Philadelphia on Sunday and in New Orleans on Oct. 26) were early holiday gifts from Brooklyn, that record could have easily been 6-3.
Instead, the Nets have now lost four in a row and seven of their last nine games without LeVert. At 8-14, they will soon face the big question of what is to become of the player for whom they traded their all-time leading scorer in center Brook Lopez and a late first-round pick that the Lakers used on forward Kyle Kuzma, in addition to having center Timofey Mozgov's anvil of a contract dumped on them.
Russell, who was drafted second overall in 2015, will be a restricted free agent after this season with an approximately $21 million salary-cap hold. There's still time left in this evaluation period, but not that much.
The Nets can't commit to Russell until the consistency issue is no longer one.
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