Nets Are Scorching

Well, the Nets ended the first half with a 48-46 lead, but the Lakers really started to defend like they are capable of, and the Nets were only able to put up 36 in the second half.  A lot of people are going to say the Lakers took the Nets too lightly in the first half, and maybe they did on the defensive end, but you can’t knock the Nets’ defensive effort in the first half, especially in the 2nd quarter where they gave up only 17 points.  Courtney Lee played very good defense on Kobe (only 11 in the first half), and CDR did a great job stifling Ron Artest, who seemed to struggle all game.  It’s funny, the score looks a lot like last night’s Raptors’ game, but the effort (and the way that I feel was much different).

• Devin was the Devin of old in the 2nd quarter, going 7-7 from the field, and scoring 17 points.  He finished the game with 21 points on 7-11 shooting.
• Kobe Bryant is really good, he went for 29 on 12-23 shooting.  A lot of his shots were well defended too, but he is just so freakin’ good.  Oh, and he is playing with a broken finger on his shooting hand.
• CDR had a very nice game on the offensive end (20 points), but maybe more impressively on the defensive end.  Late in the game though, CDR sprained his ankle and it looked real bad.  Its good that the Nets only have 7 games in the next 18 days.
• The Nets’ offense dropped off in the second half because of the Lakers’ D.  They turned up the intensity, and they didn’t allow the Nets to get in the lane, where they did their damage in the first half.
• Terrence Williams got 3 garbage minutes, but that was it.  I think Kiki is trying to protect him though.  He is a young guy, and the Lakers’ defense is very good on the ball.  You don’t want T-Will do resort back to jump-shooting mode, which is something that could happen if he played a bunch of minutes tonight.
• Keyon Dooling returned for a few minutes.  He hit a three though, showing he is still a threat from the outside.
• I think I found something in Courtney Lee’s mechanics, check back Monday for that.

Well nobody said life is fair – and that’s especially true in the NBA. Fresh off their embarrassing, no energy loss to the Raptors in Toronto last night, the Nets hop on a plane back to New Jersey to face the “Black Mamba” and the defending NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers (20-4). The last time these two teams faced on November 29, Lawrence Frank was freshly fired, Tom Barrise was the interim, interim coach, and the Lakers ambushed the Nets early en route to a 108-87 victory, sending New Jersey to a record-tying 0-17 start. Earlier this week, the Lakers survived a controversial game against the Milwaukee Bucks, when Kobe Bryant hit a game-winning, buzzer-beating 16-footer, putting the Lakers ahead 107-106. While the Lakers have plenty of firepower in Bryant, Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum and Ron Artest, where they really shine is on the defensive end, where they’re second in the league in defensive efficiency, giving up 96.7 points per 100 possessions. Not to be Captain Obvious here, but that’s a bad omen for a team that’s been struggling to score the way the Nets have this season. The one silver lining for this matchup? Kobe Bryant’s career 21.4 points per game against the Nets is his lowest against any other NBA team.The Nets last beat the Lakers November 25, 2007 in a thrilling 102-100 win in LA, back in happier times in Nets-land.

Derek Fisher vs. Devin Harris

If there’s a soft underbelly to the Lakers, you could make a case that it’s Derek Fisher, who’s averaging 6.8 points and 3.2 assists in about 27 minutes of play this season. While he’s still proven he can hit a clutch shot from time to time, Father Time is really starting to catch up with Fisher, who’s point per 40 minutes and shooting percentages continue their steady decline. Devin Harris has really struggled the past two games, and he couldn’t even get to the free throw line last night – the one thing he has been doing well all year – so now would be a good time for Devo to rise above the level of his opponent.

Advantage: Devin Harris

Kobe Bryant vs. Courtney Lee

Regular TrueHoop readers might remember this article from back in June, when Lee was matched up against Bryant during the NBA Finals. The two appeared to really irk each other, and I would expect Lee to bring his defensive “A” game tonight. Still, Kobe is Kobe, even with a broken finger, and Lee is still searching for the jump shot he had in Orlando last year. My guess? If the Lakers jump out early again, Kobe is going to get some rest, so his final stat line may not be mind blowing, but we know who’s king in this match-up nevertheless.

Advantage: Kobe Bryant

Ron Artest vs. Chris Douglas-Roberts

These are the kinds of match-ups at SF that are going to continue to give the slender Chris Douglas-Roberts problems. The 6’9″ Artest is not much of a scorer anymore, but the Triangle Offense seems to suit his abilities as a passer, as he’s currently averaging a career high in assist ratio with 21.5 percent of possessions ending in an assist. CDR looked to be the only player awake against the Raptors last night, and then called his teammates out (again) in the locker room afterwards. My guess is Artest is going to frustrate him, and frustrate him good, defensively.

Advantage: Artest

Pau Gasol vs. Josh Boone

Speaking of nightmare match-ups, Boone, who did little to nothing against Chris Bosh last night, now gets perhaps an even better player coming in with the 7-foot Gasol. Gasol is coming off a season-high 26 points, and a career-high 22 rebounds in the Lakers’ victory against the Bucks Wednesday. Like you even had to ask?

Advantage: Gasol

Andrew Bynum vs. Brook Lopez

We got a battle of the game’s two best young centers not named Dwight Howard. Bynum is a great low post player and his points per 40 are up this season to a career high 20.2, though some of his other stats (rebound rate, assist ratio) are down. Because of early foul trouble, Brook only played 28 minutes last night, so he should be relatively fresh for this match-up. Still, he should probably expect to see a double-team everytime he gets the ball in the post.

Advantage: Push

Just because the Nets are playing a “pitiful” brand of basketball right now, doesn’t mean we can’t get some insights about the incoming team, right? So, it’s only fitting with the world champion Los Angeles Lakers facing the Nets tonight, that we’d get a world champion blogger, Kurt Helin from Forum Blue and Gold, to answer a few questions on the NAS hot seat.

Thanks, as always, to Kurt, and the past and future bloggers who help make this column happen:

NAS: While the Lakers are off to a great start this season, do you envision them having any problems as the season goes along, maintaining intensity as they gear up to defend their NBA title in the postseason?

So far this season, the Lakers intensity has been good, there has been very little if any championship hangover. That said, every team hits bumps, the Lakers will hit one this season. I think as a fan (especially of a team in title contention) all you can hope for are two things: 1) That it’s not something serious, like Kobe fracturing his finger or something (well, maybe it has to be worse than that); 2) That the team handles the adversity, bounces back and grows stronger. Remember last year the Celtics had only lost a few games by Christmas, then the Lakers beat them pretty good on national television that day and the Celtics seemed to go into a little funk after that dropping six of their next eight. That would bother me. I think as a fan what you hope to see is a team that is resilient, one that fights and scraps. We’ll see what this Lakers team has when tested.

NAS: How panicked were you when you heard Kobe Bryant’s finger had been fractured? Could the Lakers withstand an absence of Kobe similar to what the Celtics went through with Kevin Garnnett last year?

I’m not sure panicked would be the right word, but pretty damn concerned. I was at that game and I think the severity hit me when Kobe spoke to the media after the game and was more subdued than I have ever seen him. This bothered him, even if he tends to view these kinds of setbacks as a challenge to overcome there still has to be some frustration. Simply put, the Lakers cannot win a title without Kobe. However, what I have said since before the season is that the Lakers have a larger margin for error than any of the other contenders, they can withstand Kobe’s injury better than other teams. Pau Gasol is capable of carrying the team for weeks, Andrew Bynum can score plenty and even Artest has those hot nights. The Lakers don’t need Kobe at 100% to win it all, and based on what he has done the last couple games he seems able to adjust to the splint. But if he is absent the way Garnett was last year the Lakers fall to just another good team.

NAS: How intrigued are you by the Brook Lopez/Andrew Bynum matchup? While Bynum’s development has been stunted the past two years with late-season injuries, both are really establishing themselves as some of the league’s best post players. Who will you give the edge to?

Just for the record, I would still call Dwight Howard the league’s best young post player. But this will be a fun matchup, I saw Brook play at Summer League this year and liked the growth he had shown in his game. As for the matchup tonight, I’m not sure either guy can stop the other if they get the ball where they want it. Denying position will matter. Bynum’s length will disrupt shots, but Lopez has a lot of tools in the toolbox to work with.

Bynum has been in a bit of a funk lately and a variety of factors (illness, being pulled away from the basket by defensive assignments) has sapped his energy and rebounding. He still scores when he gets the ball on the block, but the bounce in his step seems gone. Bynum still plays immature at times — not terribly, but not what he is capable of — and this is one of them. If he comes out still in a fog against the Nets, Brook could have a very good game.

NAS: What has Ron Artest brought to the Lakers so far this season? After watching him for the first quarter of the year, do you envision him falling back to some of his old tricks that end up distracting the team he’s playing for?

Ron Artest has brought a couple things. One is a physical presence on perimeter defense that just makes the Lakers tougher. He hustles every play, if you are his defensive assignment you have a hard time getting the ball, let alone a good shot from a spot you like on the floor. The second thing Artest has brought is a willingness to fit in on the court, to work to find his role (and he’s doing that more and more). He’s doing that, he runs the plays and does not break out of the mold. He’s also become a reliable three point shooter.

Everyone in Sacramento and Houston and Indiana are waiting for the other shoe to drop, for the crazy Artest to return and disrupt the Lakers locker room and on the court. But I don’t see hat happening. First, because he is not the Alpha Dog in this locker room — this is Kobe’s team, make no mistake. And he would not tolerate antics that could damage the team. Second, believe it or not, Artest is maturing as a person. The final thing is, the entire culture in Los Angeles is different, and he fits in. Look at it this way, if he went on a national talk show wearing short shorts while in Sacramento, it would have been the biggest topic on sports talk radio and newspaper columns there for a week. His sanity would have been questioned. But here, a guy who drinks Hennessey who walks around Hollywood in his underwear is called Tuesday. You’ve got to do better to shock and offend us.

The thing is, the only proof of how will Artest fits in or doesn’t will not come until June. Supporters and detractors of Artest can make all the points they want, it will be his play in the playoffs that will decide who is right.

Raptors Republic, Chris Douglas-Roberts Interview

Last night there was a basketball game scheduled between the New Jersey Nets and the Toronto Raptors. I don’t think anyone alerted the Nets, because they never showed up.

As for the guys wearing Nets’ jerseys in Toronto and participating in some kind of athletic exhibition last night which featured the Raptors scoring 70 points in the first half, and getting 60 of their total 118 points  in the paint – it’s hard to seriously sit here and recap their performance. The Nets had a very winnable game on their schedule, with the downward spiraling Raptors losing 4 of their last 5, and came out of the gate with no energy, no defense, no offensive cohesion, and no fundamentals. Brook Lopez (14 points, 8 rebounds), who has looked like an emerging superstar as of late, resembled a struggling youngster, picking up two quick fouls in the game’s first two minutes. He left with the Nets trailing 9-4, he returned in the second quarter with his team down 39-15. The Raptors had shot 67 percent from the field while the Nets struggled to hit 37 percent of their shots, and turned the ball over 7 times to boot.

Starting at the 5:16 mark in the first, the Raptors made six consecutive shots starting with a 17-footer by rookie DeMar DeRozan (16 points). The Nets called a 20-second timeout, and came on the floor looking confused on offense and ended up settling for a missed 16-foot jumper from Sean Williams – who was only in the game because Brook,  Josh Boone and Eduardo Najera had picked up two fouls each. While Williams ended up having a nice game (10 points, 5 rebounds), I’m guessing that Kiki Vandeweghe and the rest weren’t planning on riding him in that fashion to stem the tide of the Raptors’ onslaught.

Chris Douglas-Roberts was trying his damnedest out there to keep it competitive, going for 16 points on 7-12 shooting. He even had the honor of shooting the first free throw for the Nets for the evening – at the 4:12 mark in the second quarter. At least he was taking it inside and drawing contact. The same can’t be said for anyone else who suited up for the game.

On the bright side, Nets fans got to see Chris Bosh up close tonight, who absolutely killed the Nets in the opening 4 minutes, scoring 8 points quickly, all on the inside. He finished the game with 16 points and 8 rebounds in 26 minutes, leaving Nets fans dreaming about how much money it might take to get him over here next season as the starting four, flanking Brook Lopez. Hey, a boy can dream.

A few final thoughts of the atrocity after the jump:
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Chris Bosh after last night’s game on whether or not he’d consider coming to the Nets in free agency next summer: “Nah,” he said. “Not me.” Eh – money talks, and for all the renovations Toronto has done, their still a terrible team.

Meanwhile, on whether or not Bosh felt sorry for the Nets and their rough start to the season: “Nobody felt sorry for me,” Bosh said. “It’s part of the gig.”

Chris Douglas-Roberts on his injury and his upcoming opponent tonight: “Kobe [Bryant], I think his finger’s broken,” Douglas-Roberts said. “I can do this. He’s playing with his finger broke. The best news I ever heard was [that] it can’t get worse by playing on it.”