Nets Are Scorching

Per a request in the comment’s section, here’s a second look at yesterday’s basket and foul by LeBron James towards the end of the fourth quarter. Yes, LeBron being able to shake off two Nets defenders to power to the hoop and get the hoop is impressive, but take a closer look on the second and third replays of what James does. He clearly takes stiff arms Devin Harris on the way to the hoop. Should the basket have counted?

Considering how LeBron James told the media a few months ago that he would no longer talk about his impending free agency, he certainly had some kind words about the state of the New Jersey Nets yesterday. Per Dave D’Alessandro:

“I’m not sure,” James said. “I think their record could definitely be better, but they do have some good pieces. I think Brook Lopez, Devin Harris, Courtney Lee and some of those guys — CDR — are some really talented players.”

and

“It’s a good team. It’s a talented team. They’ve got some really good players,” James repeated. “They’re going to play hard. They got a lot of guys that want to win, and they just have to keep working.”

The New York media is going to continue to paint the LeBron situation as Knicks-or-bust. Take for example Mitch Lawrence’s article yesterday with Knicks color-man Walt “Clyde” Frazier, who believes: “LeBron would gain in stature by coming to the Knicks … I think if he signed with the Knicks, he’d be right up there with Kobe.”

The idea of LeBron James needing New York City to raise his status in the NBA is beyond ridiculous. More than enough people believe James is the best player in the league and a once-in-a-generation talent. The only thing that currently separates him from Kobe Bryant  is the fact that Kobe has won a championship. If the Cavs ever paired LeBron with a talent on the level of Shaquille O’Neal circa 2000 or Pau Gasol, I’m sure James would have won a championship by now.

With that said, I would take LeBron’s comments about the Nets yesterday as a positive. No, he’s obviously not going to say that he’s planning to play side-by-side with Devin Harris and Brook Lopez next year, but the fact that he acknowledged the talent currently on roster is a nice nod to the organization. It’s certainly a lot better than what Chris Bosh said about the Nets last month.

When it comes to LeBron’s free agency plans, I think he’s going to go where he believe he’ll have the most lasting legacy – is that sticking it out in Cleveland to bring a championship to his hometown team? Is that taking the challenge of coming to the team like the Knicks or Nets and building them into winners? Is it where he could play with a good friend like Dwyane Wade? Only LeBron knows the answer.

I still put the Nets’ chances of landing LeBron this summer as very slim, but I’m glad the beat writers are still floating this idea out there, instead of deferring to the Knicks guys to carry the conversation.

Remember that sex scandal involving prospective Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov? Nevermind, according to today’s London Times: Three years after his arrest in the ski resort of Courchevel on charges of pimping, Mikhail Prokhorov, Russia’s richest man, has received an apology from the French authorities for embroiling him in one of the most ill-judged sex scandals of recent times.

Fred Kerber reminds us that Yi Jianlian did not have a good day yesterday: “I missed a lot of shots, man,” said Yi, who bricked 11-of-13 attempts yesterday in the Nets’ 94-86 loss to the Cavs — after shooting 33-of-61 (.541) in his previous four games after his return from injury. “The shots did not feel good. They did not allow me to drive to the basket, and just very good chance at making me think about it. It’s different from the other teams — they always have two bigs inside. That makes it hard to get to the basket.”

Terrence Williams talks about his good buddy Nate Robinson’s 41-point performance the other night against the Atlanta Hawks: “It’s a good lesson for everybody,” Williams continued. “You kind of see what his work ethic is. For the month he wasn’t playing, he could have been a typical player and pout and not really work on his game, and when you’re thrown in there and you shoot 3-for-14, it looks like, ‘See, that’s why the coach didn’t play him.’

Bleacher Report features a positive spin on the Nets: Let’s play the stat game. Chris Bosh leads the league in 20 point, 10 rebound games, tallying 20. Who’s second in the league you ask? That’d be Mr. Lopez with 14 through 33 games. That’s more than Dwight Howard, Amare Stoudemire, Al Jefferson, Tim Duncan, Zach Randolph, Carlos Boozer and David Lee; impressive enough for a second year player?

Daniel Goldstein, of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn fame, is one of the final holdouts in his condo in Brooklyn, where Bruce Ratner is looking to build a new arena for the Nets: “I made a commitment to myself that I wasn’t going to be forced to sell. … I wasn’t going to be pressured or bullied,” he said. “I didn’t know what that would mean. But I knew I was committing myself to it.”

Hoop Data Box Score – Cavs the Blog – Fear the Sword – View From the Couch

If Kiki Vandeweghe has an ounce of Stanley Kubrick in him, I hope at practice he sits the Nets down “Clockwork Orange” style – strapped in, eyelids clamped open, so they can rewatch their performance in the first quarter yesterday against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Because it was some of the best Nets basketball we’ve seen all season.

The Nets did a lot right in those first 12 minutes. They played crisply on the offensive end, totaling 26 points on 52 percent shooting, moving a lot without the ball, leading to some pretty-looking baskets like the backdoor cut by Brook Lopez which led to an alley-oop from Devin Harris at the 7:27 mark and then a thread-the-needle backdoor bounce pass from Brook to Chris Douglas-Roberts, which led to a reverse slam at the 4:46 mark. The Nets also played solid defensively, holding the Cavs to 19 points and 42 percent shooting in the quarter. LeBron James, didn’t score the first of his game high 28 points (along with 9 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 blocks), until just past the 6 minute mark of the first. The Nets were getting beat up a bit inside by Zyldrunas Ilgauskus and Shaquille O’Neal, but overall, the first quarter just felt like a tremendous effort, and after beating the Knicks Wednesday night in a game where they controlled from the second quarter on, I hope I’m not overstating things when I say I feel like maybe this team is starting to come together, even though they ultimately fell to Cleveland 94-86.

At 3-30 for the season now, moral victories feel like overtime losses in hockey – the Nets should get partial credit. While I petition the NBA for such a rule adjustment, consider that even when Cleveland stormed back in the second half, and had a 12-point lead early in the fourth quarter, the Nets wouldn’t go away, like they’ve done in similar games this season (see last week’s loss to Oklahoma City). A free throw by Yi Jianlian, who was not at his best, shooting 2-13, but still managed to total 11 points, 8 rebounds and 3 blocks, cut the Cleveland lead to 81-77 at the 4:39 mark. Cleveland followed that up with an 8-0 run, capped off with a LeBron James layup and free throw with 2:40 left, where he managed to get the bucket despite CDR and Courtney Lee hanging on the King (though LeBron also looked to push CDR off him during the continuation).

Yes, the Nets still had a hard time rebounding the ball. This time, they were outrebounded 52-38 and they gave up 16 on the offensive end, including 4 to the always annoying Anderson Varejao. And yes, after the hot shooting start to the game, the Nets end up shooting 33 percent for the remaining three quarters and 38.7 percent for the game. The Nets bench continues to be a black hole for the offense, only totaling 8 points on 3-13 shooting.

But here are some positives. The Nets were one Courtney Lee point away from having all five starters in double digit scoring for the second consecutive game, showing that this group of guys is starting to get the handle of playing together. I was impressed with how, with their offense struggling in the third, the Nets rode Brook Lopez in the third quarter, who totaled 10 points for the period, and got to the free throw line 10 times (converting 8).

The difference between the Nets and Cavs yesterday boils down to one very great player, doing just enough to carry his team over the top. LeBron James is that guy, and while I continue to have my doubts that he’ll leave Cleveland at the end of the season, he just commands so much attention and effort, that it allows players like Varejao and Mo Williams to total 15 and 18 points respectively. It’s because Cleveland has LeBron James, Daniel Gibson, who’s struggling for playing time, can hit a dagger of a three-pointer at the 3:05 mark in the fourth to stretch Cleveland’s lead back to 9, as the Nets were desperately trying to hang in this game.

More thoughts after the jump.
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