Thoughts on the Game: What do the Nets and the Hindenberg have in common?
by Mark Ginocchio
Dec 19, 2009 2009-2010 Regular Season, Nets vs. Raptors, Thoughts On the Game
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:
- A few days after my Devin Harris analysis, my opinion of him has gone from curious to concerned. Just another abysmal evening, 8 points on 4-12 shooting and no free throw attempts. Harris is in the shooting slump of his life right now, so if he can’t get to the free throw line either, he’s rendered pretty useless. When will the real Devin Harris step up, or is this the real Devin Harris?
- Courtney Lee (11 points, 5-12 shooting), is still missing a ton of open jumpers.
- Rafer Alston (13 points, 4-13 shooting) is still missing a top of open jumpers.
- Somebody check Josh Boone for a pulse. He scored two points and committed 4 turnovers and basically sat for the entire second half. The guy looked comatose out there.
- Kiki looked ridiculous in that purple shirt tonight.
December 19th, 2009 at 8:54 AM
Funny how Nets fans thought this game ‘winnable’ and Raps fans see this game as ‘unloseable’.
December 19th, 2009 at 9:05 AM
Well, that debate was certainly ended after the game’s first 3 minutes Swirky, though I think many Nets fans likened this match-up to when we came to Chicago to face the Bulls a few weeks ago…. I mean, the Nets aren’t going to go 2-80 this season, regardless of how bad they looked last night.
December 19th, 2009 at 10:13 AM
Thats because Raptors fans neer acknoledge how plain awful their team has been since Vince Carter missed the shot in the eastern confernce semi’s. Not a Vince Carter debate I just think thats the last time the team was any good really.
Here’s an article I’d like to see given very much the topics comments Ive seen from free agents about the nets. When we were a 30 win team we could convince teams we had nice pieces and would the playoffs with their addition how do you guys feel this awful record is going to impact on trying to sign free agents.
December 19th, 2009 at 10:31 AM
Just pointing out how fans view games and their team. Most Raps fans would tell you that their team is severly underperforming… while most non-Raps fans feel they are right where they should be (and vice-versa for the Nets).
Shea23 – the Raps best season was actually 2 years removed from Vince Carter where they went 47-35 (40-20 over their final 60 games) and won the Atlantic Division (same year we lost to the Nets first round). Next year they were .500 with both Bosh and TJ Ford out for an extended period of time. Ofcourse those outside Canada wouldn’t realize this because the team never gets paid attention to and therefore must always suck.
December 19th, 2009 at 1:41 PM
I’m a Nets fan, and I was at this game and I can tell you firsthand that it was absolutely dismal performance by New Jersey. Toronto basically treated them like a high school girls team. They were dunking and alley-ooping all over the defense. Chris Bosh and Andrea Bargneani had so many wide open shots it was almost sickening. All the Raptors offense had to do was pass the ball one time and the Nets looked like the had just done some crazy magic trick. CDR was the ONLY one one the team who showed any emotion. Even Raptor fans, who’s team has been playing like garbage the last two weeks, were laughing at the Nets and how abysmal they were. Wow.
December 19th, 2009 at 7:25 PM
Regular season maybe but you guys went out in the first round, I think if Vince made that shot you guys probably would have made the finals to lose to the lakers. If NBA titles were handed out for records Lebron James would have been a happy an last year. The year comes down to playoffs and thats when teams show how good they really are. Take how good people thought Cleveland were last year as an example. Outside of that season the team had been plain awful though. I say this simply becuase I think they are under achiieving. I mean they hae a nice starting line up and a decent bench. They underperformed last year and having gotten better on paper continue to this year.
December 19th, 2009 at 8:31 PM
As a Raptor fan, I must say Raptors have been disaster this year despite their much better record (compared to Nets). Despite the awful performances and blow out losses they are still within the reach of playoffs That tells a lot about East. Nets loss to Raptors last night reminds me of Raptors’ loss to Bobcats. No excuse.
My hope is that Raptors will finish close to 500 record by New Year and start fresh in 2010 with much better attitude. Next 5 games will be deciding factor for the Raptors.
As far as Nets go, this year is write off, but things are looking up for you guys. Devin is great, Lopez, CDR and Courtney Lee have a great upside. If you get a good free-agent you’ll be better than you think. All the best.