The first, very early signs of Cam Thomas under Jordi Fernández looked promising, with the new Brooklyn Nets head coach calling his scoring in the team’s preseason opener “pretty elite.” “He didn’t try to do too much,

Preseason games are both a small sample size and not normal NBA basketball, so it can be hard to draw any sort of concrete conclusions.

Undeterred by the letdown, the Clippers gathered their bearings and got a spark from Jones, the young big man who has been working hard in the offseason to gain a spot in Ty Lue’s rotation. In the third quarter, the former Texas center had five slam dunks to help LA retake the lead, 83-76, heading to the final quarter.