Dave D’Alessandro takes not of how Brook Lopez shook off a bad start to the third quarter Saturday night and managed to carry the team until the final minutes against the Celtics.
The Daily News describes Brook Lopez as a “loner on the court.”
Yesterday, practiced ended with the Nets being defended by a chair. That’s what happens when you only have eight healthy bodies.
But guess who did practice yesterday? Ben Couch talks with Keyon Dooling, who’s making his way back from hip surgery.
Boston Celtics owner and CEO Wyn Grousbeck refers to prospective Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov as a “people’s billionaire.”
Over at HoopsWorld, Andrei Kirilenko calls the Nets sale to Prokhorov, “great for Russians.”
Atlantic Yards Report is looking at AY and examining if it’s a public project, a private project, or a public-private project.
I have been mentioning the name Ettore Messina for a little while now, and it seems that the international press is starting to make the connection between him and his former boss (I say former because once the Nets deal becomes official Prokhorov will have to give up ownership of his Euroleague team) at CSKA Moscow. In an interview however, Messina denies interest and says that any European coach who would try to jump straight from Europe to the NBA is crazy (big ups to NetsDaily for the translation):
ACB: Will Messina sooner or later be the first non-Yankee coach in the NBA?
Messina: I see that as very difficult. The system is not open to that possibility. (A European coach) would need time to adapt, be an assistant one or two years. It is very difficult to hope for a head coach job immediately. I’m not that crazy, though.
If the deal becomes official and the Nets continue to lose, Messina will be questioned more and more by the press about the NBA (and most likely the Nets), but even if Lawrence Frank is fired, the Nets aren’t going to hire Messina (who was linked to this job before Prokhorov’s purchase) they will just replace him with an assistant interim coach. Messina says he isn’t crazy, but you can’t help but wonder what if Prokhorov offers Messina a huge sum of money to be the coach of the Nets will Messina come over?
That’s Brook Lopez’s shot chart from Saturday and while it worked then, I don’t see him shooting this well from the outside, and that presents a problem. I mean if I took away the name from the chart, you would think that the above chart is for Rafer Alston or something like that. So how does it get fixed? Well, my solution is to take Brook Lopez out of the pick and roll, and use either Eduardo Najera or Josh Boone to set the picks.
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Dave D’Alessandro looks at the small sample size of the last two games and argues whether or not the Nets could be a better defensive team using their veterans.
When things are this bad, sometimes laughter is the best medicine for Lawrence Frank and the Nets.
Crain’s Business sits down with Bruce Ratner to talk the Atlantic Yards development and the two deadlines looming that could affect its eventual construction.
Bob Cohn of the Washington Post talks about how the fall of Communism in Russia opened these athletes and businessmen to the U.S. sports world.
Now I know I shouldn’t be happy. In fact, I should be spitting angry. I was at one point, but after the Nets dropped two tight games to fall to 0-7 (the worst start in franchise – including both the ABA and NBA stints – history), I am easing up on the opinions of the Nets. This team just continues to lose players, and the healthy guys seem to rally around each other and just play as hard as they can. Even Sean Williams is going out there and giving the Nets productive minutes. He was 2-2 today for 4 points, 2 of them coming off of a big time put back jam.
Some critics are going to say the Celtics mailed this one in, and when they decided to pull away they did. I can’t really go for that. Why? Well, the Celtics game out of the locker room and dug in. They were playing tougher on defense, and executing better on offense, in fact at one point in the third, they went on an 11-0 run. The Nets could have given up at that point (sort of like what happened in Denver), but they didn’t. They responded with an 8-0 run of their own, and ended up extending their slim lead in the third quarter. Other critics will say that the Celtics were playing the second game of a back-to-back stretch, so that wasn’t the REAL Celtics out there. What they will fail to mention is that the Nets were coming off a similar back-to-back stretch, and they were doing it with 8 players (7 really) over the past game and a half.
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An awesome effort by the Nets today against the Boston Celtics, holding a lead through the first three quarters before gassing out and letting the Celtics go ahead and hold the lead as the game wound down. Something that Mike Fratello pointed out during the broadcast. With only 8 healthy players, you can’t even practice 5-on-5 situations live, so the guys out there didn’t really know what each other would do. This was amplified by the fact that most of these guys never played together. Here are some quick immediate reactions from the game. A more thought out recap will come tomorrow:
- While I am still on the topic of guys not really knowing where each other were playing, the Nets committed 23 turnovers (20 of which were steals from the Celtics). However, the Nets did a good job of getting back on defense on those turnovers, only allowing for 24 points off of the turnovers.
- A look at the silly minutes some guys played. We had 6 guys get over 30 minutes. Trenton Hassell followed up a 46 minute game with a 37 minute game. Brook Lopez had 41, and Rafer Alston lead the group logging 44 minutes.
- Sean Williams even got some minutes tonight, finishing with 4 points and one explosive dunk. Would have liked to see him out there in the second half.
- For the second straight night the Nets won the third quarter. It looks like they got whatever problem they were having straightened out.
- I know Brook made a ton of outside shots tonight, but does it make any of you uneasy that he floats on the outside a lot more this year?
- The Nets were successful running a pick and roll with Rafer and Boone, having Brook Lopez flash the low-post hard. Brook got two easy buckets from it.
- Maybe the only benefit of this is that two young guys in the Nets’ future plans (Brook and T-Will) are taking their lumps and growing because of it. Terrence Williams turned it over a bit today, but you can see he is becoming more comfortable. A play that exemplifies that was with 5 minutes left in the 3rd T-Will caught a kick-out pass with 3 seconds left on the shot clock. Instead of forcing up a 3, Terrence pump faked, took a dribble and kicked it out to Rafer. Rafer drilled a 3 as the shot clock expired.
- While I am talking about Terrence Williams, remember all my clamoring about how he can effect a game even when not scoring? Well tonight he was 4-14 with 8 points, but he did have 9 rebounds. His offensive game has been a nice surprise, but even when he struggles to score, he can still be productive.
- Josh Boone played great, and I don’t like ripping him after a game like this (12 boards), but is there a big man that doesn’t finish around the rim like him. He always seems to be falling away from the basket. Just dunk it Boone!
- Need something to cheer yourself up? As I am typing this, the Knicks are getting blown out of the water by the Bucks.
Right now, the Nets are up 2 going into the fourth quarter. Maybe it is because CDR is cheering them on. Check out this tweet:
Let’s go Netttsss!!! Cheering from the bed. I’m the flyest person who will ever have Swine Flu. |-DYes yess!!
Good stuff. Get well soon CDR.
It was just announced on the pregame show. Dave D has the report:
The Nets’ bleak medical condition actually managed to get worse Saturday.
Chris Douglas-Roberts has been diagnosed with the H1N1 virus, Nets president Rod Thorn revealed in a statement Saturday afternoon.
The second-year wing has experienced flu-like symptoms since Thursday morning and was immediately quarantined, as per the precautionary measures mandated by the NBA.
Douglas-Roberts is believed to be the first player in the league to confirm publicly that he is suffering from the so-called “swine flu,” and it is unknown whether he received a vaccine prior to contracting it.
So CDR is the first player in the league to have contracted H1N1, and he will probably be out a little longer, because NBA officials are going to want to guarantee that he is 100% before putting him back out there.
Tonights starting lineup has been announced as well:
- Rafer Alston
- Trenton Hassell
- Bobby Simmons
- Josh Boone
- Brook Lopez
Najera and Williams are going to be coming off the bench since they will be realistically backing up guys at multiple positions. This one could get ugly.
