Nets Are Scorching

An Earl Boykins jumper with .4 seconds left was enough to sink the New Jersey Nets tonight at the Izod Center, as the fell to the Washington Wizards 81-79.

• I guess this is a good story for the NBA: the diminutive Boykins, who wasn’t even in the league last year, scoring 15 points and hitting the game winner. But to quote the great Derrick Coleman, whoop-dee-damned-doo.
• The Nets could never put the Wizards away tonight. Despite leading by 12 in the first half, the Nets kept letting Washington hang around in this game and it bit them in the rear in the game’s final few minutes.
• Here was a night where the Nets rebounding woes really came home to roost. Washington had a 40-32 advantage on the glass, including 15 offensive rebounds.  Considering the Nets outshot the Wizards (45.5 percent to 42.1 percent), and had less turnovers (19-16) and you could say the game was lost on the glass.
• Courtney Lee was on pace for a career night with 17 first-half points, but finished with 19.
• Kris Humphries struggled big-time tonight, shooting 1-8 from the field (8 points) and committing a costly turnover with about 1:20 left when he was caught in no-man’s land with the ball as the shot clock expired.
• 17 points, 8 rebounds and 4 blocks for Brook Lopez, who also made a beautiful spin, up and under move on Brendan Haywood to tie the game at 79. If we could only clone you, Brook.
• Better effort from Chris Douglas-Roberts tonight with 8 points and 9 rebounds.

Before we get to the game tonight, I just wanted to talk about Brook Lopez and the All-Star game.  Al Iannazzone’s post from today is what got me thinking about it.  There, he has an awesome quote:

Brook Lopez could care less that he didn’t make the All-Star team. He was sleeping when TNT announced the reserves last night and he also watched Willy Wonka. We asked which one?

“The good one,” Lopez said.

That means the first one. Not the Johnny Depp disappointment.

“Gene Wilder is tough to beat,” Lopez said.

If Brook isn’t mad about it, us fans shouldn’t really be either.  I mean did he deserve it?  You can argue it, I mean All-Star teams usually take two centers and I think the the fight for the “second best center in the East” is a good one.  You have a lot of candidates.  You have Joakim Noah, David Lee, Al Horford, and Brook Lopez.  Horford is probably the best defender and he plays on the best team, so I can see why the coaches took him.  The comforting thing about this is that Brook is only 21 and still developing.  If all goes according to plan, he should have plenty of All-Star games under his belt.

As for tonight, the Nets continue their pursuit of finishing the season over .500 against the Wizards.  A team that you can argue is worse off than the Nets.  You are going to see my projected lineup looks an awful lot like the one that fans don’t want to see.  Here is my take on it.  Kiki is going to stick with his guys (at least in terms of starting), but if they struggle he is going to have a quick hook.  Just my opinion though, so we will see what happens.  Anyway, onto the lineups!

Keyon Dooling vs. Randy Foye

You know what, I think it is smart to keep Harris out, especially now that Keyon got things flowing.  As Mark said earlier, you got to go with the hot hand and Dooling is it.  Foye in his own right is playing pretty good right now.  But I think Dooling’s defense will be able to shut him down.

Advantage:  Keyon Dooling

Courtney Lee vs. Mike Miller

Mike Miller has returned from injury and is playing pretty well.  Lee is returning as well, coming off getting his wisdom teeth removed.  Lee, despite all the talk about how much he sucks, has been playing well (though not to the level people expected him to at the start of the season), and most importantly, he has been aggressive.  All that being said, I think Kiki will have a short hook with him.

Advantage:  Push

Chris Douglas-Roberts vs. Caron Butler

Do I think CDR is intentionally not shooting?  I don’t know, it is tough to say, I mean his change of style of play is so drastic, that it could be possible.  What could also be possible is that he just misunderstands Kiki’s play through the bigs mantra, that he is doing it to a fault.  Maybe the win gets him going, and he will return to his aggressive self.

Advantage:  Push

Yi vs. Antawan Jamison

When I was talking about a quick hook, I was talking about Yi specifically. He has a tough matchup in Jamison, so if he isn’t hitting his shot, expect to see Kris Humphries in real quick…

Advantage:  Antawan Jamison

Brook Lopez vs. Brenden Haywood

If you remember the last time these two played, Haywood did an effective job of shutting Brook down.  He was able to use his strength to push Brook out of his post position.  It is going to be fun to watch these two go at it again.

Advantage:  Brook Lopez

Today’s guest is Kyle Weidie from the superstar TrueHoop Wizards site, Truth About It. Kyle talks about one of the few franchises that may be in even worse shape currently than the the Nets.

NAS:  What are your thoughts on the trade rumors involving Caron Butler? The Nets seemed to be backing away from trading Devin Harris now, but would you be interested in a Harris for Butler swap?

I haven’t been particularly fond of Caron’s play this season. He has not adjusted his offense game to be more team-oriented in order to fit into Flip Saunders’ system. His assists per 36 minutes is down to a measly 2.0; it stood 4.4 and 4.0 in ’07-08 and ’08-09 respectively. Even in ’06-07, the last time Gilbert Arenas was really on the court before this season, Caron managed 3.4 assists/36.His latest transgression, ignoring the play Flip Saunders called with the Wizards down one point with 6.7 seconds left against Dallas, clearly outlines that Butler is playing selfishly and that two All-Star appearances has led him to egotistically believe that he’s a number one option, superstar player when he is not.As far as I’m concerned, his time in DC has passed because he has vastly strayed from the reason he was given the nickname “Tuff Juice” in the first place. I don’t want to completely trash Butler. He’s a good guy, a decent locker room presence, and a great community man. But it just ain’t working out.That being said, I’d be completely down for exploring a Harris for Butler trade. Why not invest in a decent young PG for the future? Problem is, I’m not sure the Wizards’ brass wants to put themselves in the position to take on two more years of contract that they’d be getting back in Harris.

Why do you guys want to get rid of him anyway?

You forgot to mention an ownership in transition …. limbo. Basically, there is no direction. I say they try to get value in return for their assets, but without completely blowing up the house with a fire sale. Sounds neither easy nor likely. Rebuilding is so painful, so enduring, so unpredictable … and something Wizards fans don’t deserve. They really need to find a way to remain competitive while rebuilding … so, not like the Nets. But to do that, you need luck in the draft. After Kwame Brown, I’m not sure the Wizards franchise will ever have luck in the draft again.

I guess you’d have to put a number after “top” to really get the convo started. At 33-years old, his ability is obviously on its down-slope. That being said, Jamison is still putting up incredible numbers. He rebounds like a man and his offensive trickery (and the fact that he doesn’t play in the paint much) lends itself to more sustainability as he ages. Currently, Jamison is unquestionably a top 40 NBA player … maybe even top 30.

After watching the Nets get pulverized into a pile of jelly during their West Coast road trip last week, Wednesday’s night victory against the Clippers has made me a bit greedy.

The next three games for the Nets are all against struggling Eastern Conference teams –Washington Wizards, Philadelphia 76ers and Detroit Pistons. Unless this organization really doesn’t give a hoot if they set the record for most losses in a season – and they should, because as a fan, I want nothing to do with this record, and the players clearly don’t either – than Kiki Vandeweghe needs to coach these games to win.

By “coaching to win,” I mean Kiki needs to follow the successful blueprint carried out on Wednesday night, when the Nets played five guys for the last half of the fourth who were basically, the “hot hands.” Their age, experience and contract value was irrelevant.

Read more…

I just wanted to post a quick reaction to something that caught my eye in last night’s mailbag from Dave D’Alessandro. In a response to one question, where a reader asks if Chris Douglas-Roberts could be an effective sixth man, Dave D. suggests that CDR’s recent struggles and lack of aggression may not be the result of a concerted effort by the coaches to keep him from shooting (as some fans keep suggesting with this “Yiki” nonsense), but rather some kind of silly little boycott CDR is trying to orchestrate on the court:

But it’s pretty obvious to me that he is playing to prove that they need him — not being aggressive, not looking for shots, going through the motions — and failing badly. That’s why I’d bench him.

If this is true – and I have to admit, while observing CDR’s rampant immaturity/arrogance via Twitter recently I honestly can’t say I doubt D’Alessandro’s claims here – then that is simply one of the stupidest things a player of CDR’s caliber has ever done.

The “prove my teammates need me by not shooting” strategy may have been most famously employed by Kobe Bryant in Game 7 against the Phoenix Suns in the 2006 playoffs. After scoring 23 points in the first half of the decisive game, Kobe apparently had had enough of teammates/fans/pundits/whoever suggesting he was too selfish with the ball, so he only took three shots for the rest of the game and made some cryptic comments about trying to get “everybody involved” in the second half.

I guess CDR deserves some credit for seemingly pulling a stunt like this during meaningless games in a 4-40 season, rather than a decisive playoff game. However, it is still foolish and potentially career threatening for a guy who has otherwise proven zip in his NBA career. Consider when Kobe pulled this off, he had already won three championships (with Shaq, natch) and was considered by many to be one of the league’s most prolific scorers and defenders. Chris Douglas-Roberts is a guy who struggled to see any time his rookie season, is considered by many critics to be a one-dimensional player who can only score points at the rim and has never been known as anything special on the defensive end.

In other words? CDR, you’re not Kobe Bryant and you’re probably never going to be Kobe Bryant. So, knock it off.

Henry Abbott from the TrueHoop mothership talks about Devin Harris’ awful season, but then makes a comparison to another PG in Nets history who could never turn the team around – Stephon Marbury. This article has apparently rankled some Nets fans out there so let me quickly react and say, while there are many reasons to be down on Devin Harris this season (injury prone, can’t shoot, no defense), the one thing I haven’t heard anyone say about him that would make him Marbury-esque is that he’s being too selfish. In fact just the opposite this season, where all reports from the beat writers suggest the guy is following the team’s mantra of feeding the bigs down low to a fault. So I think Abbott’s comparison is a little off the mark here, though I appreciate his ability to get people talking about it.

Al Iannazzone reports that the Nets are doing their due diligence by letting teams know they are willing to make a trade. Will it work?:  One source said they don’t expect the Nets to make a big trade before the deadline, but added there is still plenty of time and things can come together quickly.

CC Sabathia, Nets motivational speaker?:  “I was in Cleveland for a couple of years when we lost everybody,” Sabathia said, referring to the 7-1/2 seasons he spent with the Indians. “So it’s tough (at) times, but you just have to grind through and keep playing hard because these times will make you better.”

Even WFAN radio man Chris Carrino is affected by the Nets poor play: “I will never complain about this job that I dreamed about doing since I was a little kid,” Carrino said. “But the thing I miss is really being able to dig down, get emotional about the game, get excited about the game, deliver big calls, get into important strategy.”

After his terrific performance Wednesday, the Nets were heaping praise on Kris Humphries at practice yesterday: “Kris is probably one of those guys who’s talented enough to be a starting power forward in this league,” Dooling said. “He just hasn’t found that right situation yet and he’s making the best of this situation.”

As Dave D’Alessandro reports, maybe the Nets snapped themselves out of their funk on Wednesday because Keyon Dooling snapped himself out of his: “Over the last three weeks, I’ve fallen victim to the frustration — I let it get to me, I wasn’t lively, I wasn’t talking a lot,” Dooling said Thursday after the team’s practice session. “I had a talk with myself, and then I had a talk with Kiki. And we agreed that I just had to get back to who I am – being positive, being the guy who lightens up the room.

The Huffington Post (?) posted some video of TWill’s dunks from Wednesday night. Classic reaction from one reader on the blog: No one cares you lowly intern. go work at espn.

A great edition of Dave D’Alessandro’s mailbag. I’m going to touch on this in a bit.