Nets’ Cam Thomas makes NBA history with third straight 40-point performance

The Brooklyn Nets just sent one star player packing and has another who has not played in nearly a month, but second-year player Cam Thomas is filling the void nicely. 

As the Nets traded Kyrie Irving to the Dallas Mavericks on Monday and await Kevin Durant’s return from an MCL injury, Thomas is setting records. 

The second-year pro out of LSU etched his name in the NBA record books Tuesday night, becoming the youngest player in NBA history to record three straight 40+ point games. 

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Thomas, 21, scored 43 points against the Phoenix Suns, joining Allen Iverson as the only player to score 40+ in three consecutive games before the age of 22. 

Thomas’ performance came in a losing effort as the Nets dropped their second game in a row, falling to Phoenix, 116-112. 

“Obviously I’d rather have the win because it sounds better when you have these 40-point games with the two (games) that we lost, but it’s just good to have my name in history,” Thomas said.

Thomas scored 44 points against the Washington Wizards on Saturday and set a career-high with 47 points against the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday. 

Brooklyn was also without the services of guard Seth Curry for the second straight game, and the Nets allowed 26 points off of turnovers. 

“It was a great job of giving effort, and giving what they had back-to- back. But the little things are gonna matter for us now and going forward. Those little things are 16 turnovers and the 16 offensive rebounds,” head coach Jacque Vaughn said, according to the New York Post. 

“My high school coach used to say don’t negate your hustle. We had plenty of times where we got stops, but we didn’t come up with offensive rebounds. So that’s gonna be a challenge for this group. And we put that in front of them.

Thomas was drafted with the 27th pick of the 2021 NBA Draft after one year at LSU.

The Associated Press contributed to this report