Thoughts On The Game: Six Minutes Is All It Takes
by Sebastian Pruiti
Jan 16, 2010 Nets vs. Pacers, Thoughts On the Game
Advanced Box Score | Eight Points Nine Seconds | Indy Cornrows
During the final six minutes of the first half, the Nets were outscored 24 to 5. That equals minus 19 for those six minutes. For the other 42 minutes, the Nets were +3. Six minutes is all it takes to make a close game a blowout, a game where the Nets had a chance to win to another 15+ point loss. During this stretch, the Pacers were able to shoot 8 for 10 from the field (80%) and 6 for 7 from the line. That is just way too easy, even for the Nets who seemingly let all of their opponents shoot over 50%. The Nets offense as it currently stands isn’t going to outscore anyone, and there are going to be stretches (like this six minute one) where the Nets are going to just go cold and not score. The Nets need to recognize when this is coming and dig their heels in the defensive end. Also, the Nets need to attack the basket on the offensive end. During this run the Nets settled for way too many jumpers and they lost the aggressiveness that kept them in the game up until that point. The Nets got zero foul shots during that six minute stretch. Getting to the foul line during opponent runs is so important not only because you get easy baskets with the clock stopped (the Nets are one of the better foul shooting teams in the league), but because it slows everything down as well. When a team gets to the foul line, everything stops and the rhythm of the opponents run is broken. Unfortunately the Nets didn’t do any of this as they went cold, they just watched as the Pacers scored 24 points in 6 minutes.
I mentioned this briefly in the quick recap, but I wanted to talk about it some more. Despite everyone getting on Devin Harris calling him soft, injury prone, and talking about how he isn’t a leader just because he isn’t bashing him teammates to the media day-in/day-out. Devin Harris is leading this team, and he is doing it by example. Devin Harris estimates his health at about 80%, and he is still out there. Why? Well he told the media on Tuesday:
“I owe it to them [the Nets]. I mean, we have a better chance to win when I play even if it’s [the wrist] is only 80 or whatever. We’ve been hurt all year long and this is the first opportunity that we have had everyone healthy and everybody in full uniform.”
Devin Harris goes out every game and takes a lot of hits (yesterday he had Brook Lopez and Roy Hibbert wrestling on one of his legs) and he just gets up and keeps playing. That is a great example for our young players.
Kris Humphries got 27 minutes yesterday, and he rewarded Kiki’s trust by playing very very well. He was a threat on the offensive end when he caught it, and he was setting a lot of good picks then making himself available on the rolls. He was 5-7 from the field (including 5-6 from the line) and he finishes with 15 points. Humphries also played well on the defensive end, he had a big block on Roy Hibbert, and he even “pulled the chair” on him at one point in the second half. He just looks comfortable out there, and I can see Humphries finding a home (and some playing time) in New Jersey. Some final bullets after the jump.
- After a short stretch where the Nets were defending the 3 well, the Nets reverted back to their old ways and gave up a ton of wide open threes. The Pacers were 13-23 from the field which is good for about 56%.
- Chris Douglas-Roberts and Courtney Lee just didn’t look aggressive last night. CDR especially. CDR had a couple opportunities in transition to force the issue and get a lay-up, but instead, he just pulled it out.
- Again, the Nets limited their turnovers (just
and that is something else that hurts. They take such good care of the ball, but they don’t take advantage of it, they just end up taking bad shots. - The Nets were out-rebounded again. This time by a tally of 42 to 39.
January 16th, 2010 at 1:12 PM
CDR was dogging it in the Pacer game. He wasn’t trying andit was obvious. I haven’t seen that from a player in a long time. Usually a coach will pull a player, but Kiki stuck with him, and CDR sulked and poutted all game. I miss Coach Frank
January 16th, 2010 at 3:36 PM
I think CDR gave a good effort. His problem last night was he was going one against 4 in the paint. In fact the whole team is trying to get all their shots in the paint. I know they are having problems from the outside, but they still need to keep them honest by shooting a jumper.
The rebounding situation is indicative of their lack of aggressiveness on the floor. I see them waiting for someone else to get the bal. They can’t afford to have that approach.
On the offensive end, I thought they ran into the opposite problem when they had trouble scoring. I saw them trying to do too much as an individual and not playing as a unit.
January 16th, 2010 at 11:47 PM
So I’ve been thinking, all this losin is weihing on my mind none of us thought the nets would be this bad. Some people said 30 wins others 20 now most of us are hoping for 10. I at least thought hey we can be a 20 or 30 win team as our young player get better and fill in a bit for VC, get a nice high pick adding some more good young players in the draft and then if the team is mediocre we probably won’t attract Lebron or anything but we could sign two all star caliber free agents in FA who saw the team was mediocre with improving players and with their addition could be good and then we’d have three all star players including Devin and future all star in Brook. A bunch of good youn players and we could retain the likes of Dooling or Hayes or get some other decent roleplayers to fill in the gaps cheep since they’d be so much talent available good rolepalyers would have to settle for less than normal. I even thought we might be like Detroit used to be a good team with no superstar.
But now its looking like while some players are better than predicted in YI and CDR, others are little disappointing like Lee. And Harris has struggled this season.. Bottom line the nets are worse than expected which wasn’t much. Record futility is approaching and most of us are starting to worry if the nets continue to play awful and Devin gets less respect among his peers than last year and without another legitimate all star ala VC (obviously his age and contract mean he couldn’t stay here realistically) the nets will be to bad a prospect to attract free agents even with all their money and on that point maybe only because of their money meaning they’d have to way overspend to get free agents which isn’t a good thing. So right now I think the best hope to avoid infamy is to trade for some sort of player that can play at an all star level someone that will get us enough wins to avoid infamy and be another attraction for free agents. Who knows if there is another threat maybe Devin play’s like last year. But anyway Devin Brook and another good player plus whatever else we have left that’s attractive enough right. I’m not a huge of dealing any assets to get someone who’s not likely to resign even if it lets us offer more money. I mean sure if we can get someone without giving up an asset and they get us a few more wins that’s great because even if they don’t resign we avoid infamy and are in the same place because of their expiring contract. But giving up an asset for someone who won’t resign just screws us.
I’m also deadest against trading Devin though, even for a good player, Why his value is down, his contract is reasonable also trading him doesn’t guarantee anything. We gain one good player lose another we still lose plenty of games as we’re only swapping talent not adding and the guys will need to time to play together effectively anyway. My main issue is it leaves a gaping hole at point guard. On of the hardest position to fill, there a 75% chance we don’t get Wall not exactly in our favour No it think Devin and another player is needed to attract free agents, I think if we have no point uard the team will be screwed for years to come and I have believe Devin can be very good with more talent on the roster at a very reasonable price for years to come. So yeah I think we need to make a deal with expiring contract as our best moving forward maybe et on the other end of a salary dump for once we might to include other uys from our “core” (prefer if we could try not to) but point guard is the most important position in the game after center and trading is just a step back. I think Brook and Devin need to be untouchable. What do the rest of you guys think?
January 16th, 2010 at 11:52 PM
Sorry bout all the mistakes key board screweds leaving out letters.