So I watched the Grizzlies-Cavs game from last week, and clipped together a video showing some tendencies the Cavs have and what the Grizzlies did to get the win:
I chose the Grizzlies’ game because what they did to beat the Cavs is what the Nets can do. They ran and used the pick and roll. The Nets have been running more, and the Brook/Devin pick and roll is tough to stop.
What division? Chris Douglas-Roberts on Twitter: Just had a great team dinner. Everybody kind of opened up. We all laughed & kicked it w/each other for the first time. I think this is big.
CDR in a quick Q+A with USA Today: What you would be doing if you didn’t play basketball: “I have no idea. I never had a backup plan. That’s why I put 1,000% into this. … I’d be doing something in sports.”
An arena truce bill would put a $3 surcharge on all Prudential Center and Izod Center events in New Jersey, but could help facilitate the Nets temporary move to Newark. Here’s NJ state senate president Richard Codey in The Record: “We shouldn’t have two New Jersey institutions competing against each other and hurting one another economically,” Codey said. “This legislation would help ensure the financial stability of both venues.”
Al Iannazzone wearing his Nets Insider hat: “The Nets have to concentrate their effort on the defensive end. They’re a step slow, a few strides behind and aren’t getting help when they get beaten. More talking, better rotations, more focus all would help.”
Dave D’Alessandro also warns that the Nets need to get their defense together for tonight’s matchup with LeBron James and the Cavs: “Or think of it this way: In their last three games, the Nets have essentially turned into the laissez-faire defenders of ’08-09, yielding an average of 114 points on 50 percent shooting, while making stars out of the likes of C.J. Watson, Tyler Hansbrough, and Mo Evans. Now they’ve got to deal with LeBron James, perhaps the most perfectly engineered offensive specimen the sport has ever seen, and one who has averaged 36.7 points in his last four games.”
Scenes from yesterday’s “junk bond” demonstration by Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, the lead opposition for the Atlantic Yards development.
Former Nets coach Byron Scott is ESPN’s newest studio analyst.
Hey guys, I just wanted to welcome Tony Maglio who will be writing a weekly column over here called “Fan On The Couch.” Tony Maglio is a comedian and writer from New Jersey and a former Nets season ticket holder. He is a freelance writer for “Saturday Night Live’s” Weekend Update, a staff writer on “Latenet”, writes for the screen and stage and is a contributor to various podcasts, websites and other publications. As a stand up comedian, Tony has performed all over the northeast and written for other comics. This will be up every Monday at about 1. Since we tend to throw up a ton of posts here, we don’t want Tony’s great work to get lost in the shuffle, so you can find all of his posts by looking under the header and clicking the Fan On The Couch link.
After the Pacers game Friday, the Nets’ defacto leader Devin Harris mentioned the one word you don’t want to hear about your team. Divided. “We are a little divided as a team right now,” Devin said, he then added, “and looking at the product on the court, I tend to agree. I mean, you had CDR’s tweets about the team being soft, Terrence Williams’ tweets, and then Rafer yelling at his teammates on the bench in Indiana (still don’t know what that is about). It only makes sense that the defense is starting to suffer now that this stuff is coming out, you need to be able to trust your teammates on that end of the court, and they nobody on the Nets seems to trust anybody else.
Why is this division there? When Devin was asked, this is what he said:
“There are bunches. You see younger guys, older guys…You see guys in their comfort zone right now. We need guys to step out of their comfort zone and pull together.”
Hoopinion, Peachtree Hoops, Kiki Vandeweghe Interview, Brook Lopez Interview
You would think 107 points on 50 percent shooting for the Nets would be a landmark game, but teams in the NBA still need to play defense if they expect to win games – something the Nets have failed to do 3 games running, looking about as lackadaisical against the Atlanta Hawks last night as they did earlier in the week against the Golden State Warriors and the Indiana Pacers.
The Nets gave up 130 points to the Hawks who had seven players scoring in double-figures, and were led by Maurice Evans (22 points, 9 rebounds) and Joe Johnson (21 points, 10 assists). Outside of the first quarter where the Nets were outscored 31-29, this one was never really close. Atlanta closed the first half with a 19-5 run, putting them up 12, and never looked back from there, leading by as many as 26 points in the second half.
What was so strange about this game was how the Nets seemed to be even with the Hawks in many key categories. The Hawks shot 53.3 percent to 50.6 percent for the Nets; they had 52 points in the paint and the Nets had 46; 25 fast break points compared to 23 for the Net;, and 12 turnovers for the Hawks with 13 for the Nets.
Where the Nets went horribly wrong was on the glass, getting outrebounded 51-38. The Hawks also got to the line 10 more times (shooting 21-29) and mad 6 more three pointers (11-17 compared with 5-10 for the Nets). That’s one way a team outscores you by 23 points.
The Nets frontcourt combo of Trenton Hassell (13 points 6-6 shooting) and Josh Boone (8 points, 5 rebounds) was overmatched defensively against Atlanta’s Evans and Josh Smith (16 points, 8 rebounds), and the reserves didn’t fare much better with Eduardo Najera looking rusty on defense in his return to action and Bobby Simmons giving another blase performance with 7 points on 3-9 shooting. The only frontcourt member who looked like he had a clue on defense was Sean Williams, who played 7+ minutes of garbage time at the end of the game and registered 3 blocks and no personal fouls.
Devin Harris quietly put together one of his best games of the season, finishing with a double-double of 23 points and 10 assists, shooting 9-18 from the field. Yet he did most of his damage in the second half (15 points) when the Nets were already out of the game. Outside of the fourth quarter against Chicago on Tuesday night where he hit a number of big shots down the stretch, I can’t honestly think of a game where Devin Harris has carried his teammates for all four quarters.
A bright spot for the second game in a row was Terrence Williams. Apparently bullying reporters and causing team turmoil must be good for the rookie’s game, because he scored 18 points, and grabbed 7 rebounds while shooting 8-14 from the field. He still looks way too uncontrolled and wild at points – at the 10:01 point he forced a layup off the fast break and ended up with nothing – but he is definitely making a visible effort to take the ball to the hoop more, only shooting 5 jumpers outside of 15-feet, and making two of them, including a trey near the end of the second, that cut the Hawks lead to 8 before Atlanta was able to fire off 4 quick points to end the half.
Some final thoughts after the jump.
Read more…
Chris Douglas-Roberts says he’ll play on Tuesday, despite the knee sprain.
The Chicago Sun Times calls rumors that Lawrence Frank will replace Vinny Del Negro in Chicago “pure folly.”
Some updates on Barclays Center financing from Bloomberg.
Also, some reports that put doubt on a hockey team ever being able to play at Barclays.
The Nets (2-22) looked good for the first 12 minutes tonight, but were inevitably picked apart by the Hawks (17-6), losing 130-107 in Atlanta.
UPDATE: Dooling is out. Also, Michael Kay is doing the game today…what?
Before we start to talk about tonight’s game, there was an interesting article today from Al Iannazzone today. In it, Rod Thorn gets in on the act talking about the Nets’ unity:
Thorn told his players to stop airing their frustrations publicly and focus on playing as a team.
“If you have an issue with a player, as a player you go talk to the [other] player,” Thorn said Saturday. “You need to do this, and you need to do that rather than air it publicly. You’d rather have it that way. And it’s irrelevant whether it’s true or not. If you have an issue with a guy, then go talk to him and do it internally.”
When asked if this was relayed to the team, Thorn replied, “Let’s just say yes, that has been addressed.”
I am going to talk about this at length tomorrow, but just know that if these guys aren’t talking about it, it doesn’t mean the “division” problem is solved. It is just because Rod Thorn told them to stop talking to the media about it. It is going to be there until one person steps up and gets these guys to work together, whether it be Kiki, Devin, or Brook someone has to do it. This didn’t start when Frank was fired either, it was there, but there were so many guys out that everyone who was active was getting minutes. Once minutes started declining for some people, the problems became more apparent.
As for tonight, CDR is out with a strained knee, and Tony Battie is out too with a pulled groin. Devin Harris is playing with a sprained pinkie as is Keyon Dooling, Bobby Simmons and Eduardo Najera. Going to be interesting to see how the whole Harris/Dooling/Alston lineup shakes things up. Anyway, onto the matchups!
Devin Harris vs. Mike Bibby
Mike Bibby is getting up there with age, and it is starting to become apparent, on the defensive end at least. Harris should be able to get by him and into the lane to create havoc. Bibby is only averaging 9.7 points and 4.0 assists. He is a solid three point shooter too, leading the team in 3 point percentage.
Advantage: Devin Harris
Courtney Lee vs. Joe Johnson
Courtney Lee is going to be put to the test here on the defensive end. Joe Johnson is a great shooter, but he has enough handle where he can get into the lane if you close too hard. Courtney has a reputation of being a solid defender, he is going to need to do a good job against Johnson today if the Nets want a chance to win.
Advantage: Joe Johnson
Trenton Hassell vs. Marvin Williams
This is probably the worst team CDR can be out against. The Hawks feature a ton of tall/slender/athletic guys, and the Nets now have to counter with guys like Trenton Hassell and Bobby Simmons. I know I said to expect Terrence to only get 15-20 minutes a game for a while, but he may have to play more tonight out of necessity. He is the only SF on our roster that can hang with guys like Marvin Williams and Josh Smith.
Advantage: Marvin Williams
Josh Boone vs. Josh Smith
This could be one of the worst match-ups in the history of the NBA. I don’t even think I am exaggerating…too much…Boone is a bigger guy who is more comfortable banging inside. Josh Smith is a freak of nature who attacks the boards and using his athleticism to disrupt everything. If this was last-year, you could force Smith outside and let him shoot himself out of games, but this year, he has decided to do only the things he does well…damn…
Advantage: Josh Smith
Brook Lopez vs. Al Horford
This is going to be a fun match-up to watch all night. Not only is it a match-up of two of the best young centers in the NBA, but this could be a battle to see who becomes the third (or second, depending who gets voted the starter) center to represent the Eastern Conference in the All-Star game. Look for Brook to have the slight edge today. Horford is a big-boy, but he isn’t Roy Hibbert big, and those are the guys who has been limited Brook. Horford is more like a Joakim Noah type, and you saw the type of game he had against him. Hopefully he can get position, and the Nets can give him the ball.
Advantage: Brook Lopez