Nets Are Scorching

So the Nets put up their weekly turd, dropping their sixth straight and getting blown away at home by the Boston Celtics 111-87.

• The Celtics, despite missing Kevin Garnett and Rasheed Wallace, weren’t screwing around tonight, scoring 38 points in the first quarter, and hitting 9 of their first 10 shots. They shot 69 percent in the first half, compared with 32 percent for the Nets.
• Brian Scalabrine had 11 points in the first half. Did he ever do that with the Nets?
• Brook Lopez was a bright spot for the Nets scoring 18 points (5-12 shooting), grabbing 10 rebounds, and blocking 4 shots.
• Yi Jianlian chipped in with 19 points on 6-12 shooting, hopefully temporarily ending the discussion about him and Brook Lopez coexisting. Remember folks, it’s the rest of the roster that’s the problem.
• Playing with an injured wrist, Devin Harris muscled his way to 15 points and 6 assists. His PG counterpart Rajon Rondo had a pedestrian 11 points and 14 assists (yawn).
• Paul Pierce, who I still saw enough of back in 2002, led all scorers with 24 points.
• In his Nets debut, Kris Humphries scored 9 points on 1-8 shooting, but he got to the FT line 10 times (hitting 7) and he grabbed 8 rebounds (5 offensive).

Before we get to the game preview, a quick little NetsAreScorching note.  We have been getting a lot more commenters (which is in fact awesome), and this is leading to a lot of different comments with a lot of different opinions and viewpoints.  There has been a little quipping back and forth between commenters.  We just wanted to remind you to check out the commenting constitution (link up top).  While we love having awesome Nets’ discussion, we don’t want to have petty arguments and such in our comments.  Thanks guys.

Onto the game, the Nets are coming off some good performances, and if you are going to beat the Boston Celtics, this is your best chance.  Both Kevin Garnett and Rasheed Wallace are out, and Marquis Daniels (averaging about 6 PPG) is also out.  Brian Scalabrine is starting for the Celtics, that is a bit of a downgrade from the Garnett/Wallace combo.  Onto the match-ups:

Devin Harris vs. Rajon Rondo

Rajon Rondo is an incredible player.  He is so fast and athletic that he can get into the lane and do whatever he wants when he gets there.  He is also a factor when it comes to getting offensive boards, so he will definitely be a pain in the ass.  One quick note on Devin, yesterday when he was asked why he is playing when he calls himself about 80% he said something along the lines of I owe it to the team to play.  Yes, he might not be a true point or a vocal leader, but this guy is definitely a guy that leads by example and every team needs that.

Advantage:  Rajon Rondo

Courtney Lee vs. Ray Allen

Here is a perfect example of why the Celtics are so dangerous.  Normally I could see Lee switching off to cover Rondo while Devin would go cover the 2-guard.  You can’t do that with the Celtics, because Ray Allen is just as dangerous as Rondo, so Lee needs to stick with him.

Advantage:  Ray Allen

Chris Douglas-Roberts vs. Paul Pierce

Paul Pierce has been hurting as of late, but he is still a great player, and when he gets the ball on the elbow, he is almost unstoppable.  CDR’s lack of size against guys like Pierce worries me, but it hasn’t really hurt him in the past.  I am hoping that can continue.

Advantage:  Paul Pierce

Yi vs. Brian Scalabrine

I would love to see “New Yi” go up against Garnett (it definitely would have lead to a fight), but Yi has a bit of an advantage against Scalabrine.  If Yi starts making his shots, Scalabrine is going to have to come out on him, and this is where new aggressive Yi will take over.

Advantage:  Yi

Brook Lopez vs. Kendrick Perkins

Brook is coming off of a big game, but I am worried he might be held in check tonight.  Kendrick Perkins is the exact guy who gives him trouble.  Perkins is a strong and tough player who is able to get Brook to catch the ball outside his comfort range.  I would actually like to see the handoff play the Nets run used a lot tonight, because that will force Perkins to concentrate on something else besides just pushing Brook out of the lane.

Advantage:  Push – Note:  I don’t think Perkins is as good as Brook, but Perkins can limit him to the same production that Perk will give the Celtics.  Does that make sense?

The Nets get to host one of the East’s elite tonight, and to walk us through the experience is an elite blogger, a personal favorite of mine, Zach Lowe of Celtics Hub.

NAS: The big knock on the Celtics before the season started was whether or not their older star players could stay healthy when it matters most. With recent injuries to Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, are you starting to worry about a rerun of last season’s finish?

I’ve been worried all year long. You never really stop worrying about it. The funny thing about following a team like Boston obsessively is that you get wrapped up in every game, in the development of the team and its individual players, and you forget the fact that the whole season could become effectively meaningless with a single player injury. But this is the reality when the only goal is to win a title.

It’s tough to blog about a miserable team like New Jersey. But at least you get to enjoy those little daily developments without worrying that one wrong break can ruin the entire season.

Doc has been very disciplined with Kevin Garnett all season, playing him about 31 minutes per game. And he was good about keeping minutes down for Rondo, Pierce and Ray Allen until injuries to Marquis Daniels (who played most of the back-up point guard minutes) and Paul Pierce decimated the ranks of the C’s wing people/ball-handlers. Rondo has played more than 40 minutes in eight games since Dec. 22; he’s played more than 40 minutes just 24 times in his regular season career, and a third of those games have been in the last three weeks.

It all peaked Monday night, when (after Doc Rivers was ejected), Tom Thibodeau, the C’s lead assistant, played the same five players (Perk-Davis-Rondo-Pierce-Allen) the final 18 minutes of the game, and four starters played at least 42 minutes.

NAS: What are some of the potential needs for the Celtics as the trade deadline approaches. Who do you think might fit those needs?

The Celtics now have a free roster spot after waiving Lester Hudson last week, and the speculation is (obviously) that Ainge intends to use that spot in a 2-for-1 or 3-for-2 player trade. I won’t belabor the point here, but it won’t be easy for the C’s to add a significant piece without giving up Glen Davis or a draft pick in the process. They don’t have a large expiring deal like Cleveland has in Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Instead, the C’s have a lot of smaller expiring deals linked to players with little or questionable basketball talent (Scal, Tony Allen, Shelden Williams, J.R. Giddens) or players expected to play a key role on the team (Marquis Daniels). Finding a deal that works will be tough.

That said, the C’s could add a useful player making $5-$6 million per year by packaging Scalabrine and Tony Allen. Depending on how borderline playoff teams like Chicago, New Orleans, New York and others fare in the next few weeks, guys like James Posey, John Salmons, Tyrus Thomas and others could be made available, especially for teams looking to get under the luxury tax.

The most frequently mentioned possible trade target continues to be Andres Nocioni of Sacramento. But the Hornets-Kings deal struck Monday (involving Hilton Armstrong going to Sacramento) complicates that scenario a bit.

NAS: Last week, you wrote a piece about our old friend Brian Scalabrine where you look at his advanced stats and conclude he may be one of the worst players getting regular minutes in the NBA (how he beats Rafer Alston is beyond me). Do you have any theories about the decline in his performance? Is there any justification for him to get minutes in Boston going forward?

Well, your old pal Scal scored 9 points on 3-of-4 shooting Monday against the Hawks, so he’s back! He also pulled down a season-high five boards. To put this in perspective, Scal had scored just eight points combined in his last 14 games before Monday’s explosion. He played mostly because Rasheed Wallace was out with some unknown foot injury.

And that’s the justification for him getting minutes—health issues. As for the decline in his play, I don’t think it’s anything mysterious. He’s a marginal NBA player. Marginal NBA players generally perform poorly.

Here at Nets Are Scorching, we value tradition. Tradition bonds families and communities together. Additionally, it gives us all collectively something to look forward to on a regular basis. So with these things in mind, and in celebration of our team’s newest player, NAS will continue The Two Man Game’s tradition of posting a random Kris Humphries photo, fact, quote, whatever every Wednesday – because it’s hump day, and the Nets now have a player who’s nickname is Hump.

Now on with the post…

Back in Hump’s Toronto Raptors day, he did a regular mailbag with The Globe and Mail called “Ask Hump.” Questions covered a number of topics. Here’s one from 12/19/08 and Hump’s response:

I think Hump would be bad ass if he trained in MMA.

Cheers,

Justin

Hump: What is that, some ultimate fighting league? Damn, I’d have to work on my flexibility. Those guys, they kick. What’s crazy about that, not that many fights end up in knockout. It’s mostly submissions, so ex-wrestlers are pretty good. I don’t think that’s my thing.

I wrote something on this a little while back for the Daily Dime, but that was only three games in, so wanted to revisit it today (10 games since his return).  Free Throw Rate measures how many foul shot attempts a player gets compared to the number of shots he takes.  His Free Throw Rate at the time of my Daily Dime piece was .44, today it sits at .46.  This is good for 34th in the league and is a tremendous upgrade from his Free Throw Rate of last year (.25).

So why is Free Throw Rate so important that I am talking about this again?  Well getting to the line is important when you are looking for consistency in a player.  In past years, Yi would put together a nice string of games, but then drop off, and it all had to do with his shooting.  He was a feast or famine player when it came to his jumper and if his shot wasn’t going down, he wasn’t being a productive player.

Getting to the foul line resolves this issue.  I mean, look at Yi’s last game against San Antonio.  He was just 4-17 from the field in San Antonio, but he was able to score 16 points because he got himself to the line 10 times (hitting 8 of them).  Yi is a good enough foul shooter that when he gets to the line he is basically getting free points.  Not only does that help you in terms of production, but getting to the foul line also helps shooters get out of funks.  If you are in a shooting skid, and go to the foul line, that is where you work the kinks out.  You get 10 seconds and of no defense to take a shoot, get your stroke down, and most importantly you get to see the shot go in.  Yi was in a big time shooting funk last year, and in my opinion, he didn’t get to the line often enough last year to break out of it.  This year is a totally different story.  He has attempted 74 foul shots so far this year in 14 games compared to the 123 he took all of last year.

So where did this come from, a lot of people (including myself) has speculated Yi’s new toughness was a result of his injuries this year, and when he came back, he was just a hungrier player.  This may be true, but what nobody really has talked about was Kiki and Del’s effect on Yi’s attacking ways.  It’s impossible to teach toughness though right?  That’s what I thought too, but then I saw Yi working with Kiki, Del Harris, and Clifford Robinson yesterday:

Say what you will of Kiki’s coaching style, but it is obvious that Kiki knows that being able to take shots and still get his shot off is a key to Yi’s success.  He has been stressing it to him all year, and it is obviously working.  Another fun stat, Yi’s And 1 rate (And 1s/Field Goals Attempted) is up from 1.6 last year to 2.5 this year.

Tommy Dee over at The Knicks Blog, has an interesting tidbit about Tracy McGrady and the Nets from last summer: The Rockets had a deal in place to send McGrady to New Jersey for Vince Carterand other pieces, similar to the Nets-Magic deal on draft night. When McGrady’s agent Arn Tellem informed his client he was about to be on the move, McGrady abruptly ended his season by saying he needed micro-fracture surgery on his ailing knee.

Three major NYC city streets are going to be wiped off the grid to make room for the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, according to the Brooklyn Paper: Since leaping one of the last remaining major legal hurdles in late November, Ratner has moved forward with his project far more rapidly than a Nets fast-break. And in December, he sold $511 million in tax-free bonds — roughly half the money needed for the arena.

Meanwhile, another court hearing is scheduled regarding the Atlantic Yards development.

Dave D’Alessandro comes to the defense of Devin Harris: For starters, he’s missed one-third the schedule. And even when he does play, the mandate he’s received from the new staff is pretty clear: “Run the same four plays for Yi and Brook, take your shots down from 18 to 8 per game, and by the way, do it with a smile and pretend you’re on board with this disaster even though we know you’re not.”

Matt Moore at Hardwood Paroxysm has some advice for the Nets when it comes to trading Devin Harris: Don’t do it.

NBA.com sees some light at the end of the tunnel for the Nets: Winning next season might be an order the size of the Atlantic Yards arena project, but in addition to the money the Nets will throw at the loaded 2010 free-agent class, they’ve got 10 Draft picks, five in the first round, over the next three years. New Jersey could end up being a major player before the Feb. 18 trade deadline depending on the status of prospective owner Mikhail Prokhorov.

Bethlehem Shoals over at NBA Fanhouse talks about swapping one Sean Williams for a Shawne Williams.

Marc Stein talks about a potential Utah/Dallas swap involving free agent to-be Carlos Boozer.

Fighting for Freddy’s Bar in Brooklyn on Fox News: