Nets Are Scorching

The Nets hung with the Eastern Conference’s best team for three quarters, and were within four points with about 4:40 left in the fourth before the Cleveland Cavaliers pulled away to win 94-86 in a matinee game at the Izod Center today.

• The Nets played a nice game defensively today, holding the Cavs to 39.5 percent shooting, including 4-14 from three-point land, but after shooting 52 percent in the first quarter and, the Nets only shot 33 percent for the rest of the game.
• The rebounding woes for the Nets continued as they were outboarded 52-38, and gave up 16 offensive rebounds.
• LeBron James had 28 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 blocks on Chris Douglas-Roberts.
• Solid game for Devin Harris, who finished with 22 points on 7-13 shooting, along with 6 assists and 5 rebounds. Brook Lopez also chipped in 20 points, getting 8 of them from the free throw line.
• Lopez had 4 assists, including a great backdoor pass to Chris Douglas Roberts, threading the needle between LeBron and Zydrunas Ilgauskas for the dunk. CDR was hanging tough with LeBron James early, but injured his ankle in the third quarter and looked to be hobbling around throughout the rest of the game. He finished with 16 points on 8-14 shooting.
• Yi Jianlian probably had his worst game since returning from injury, scoring 11 points on 2-13 shooting as the Cavs were playing him to drive most of the game and he couldn’t get his jump shot going.  Yi also had 8 boards and 3 block shots.

Apparently they did.  Check out this tweet from Adrian Wojnarowski, a very credible source in my opinion:

Prior to Christmas, Knicks turned down a Nets offer of Rafer Alston and Tony Battie for Nate Robinson and Darko Milicic, league sources say.

That’s…well…interesting to say the least.  Rod and Kiki have said a number of times that they weren’t going to take on any new salary for next year to make this year’s team better.  A deal like this makes sense for both teams because all of the names involved are expiring contracts.  If anything, this just confirms that Rafer doesn’t really have a place on this team anymore and they are looking to move him.  I doubt that they can get a pick for him due to his poor play this year, but if they can get someone who they think will help this year, and won’t count against next year, I say they move him.

The Nets look to start of 2010 on the right note by playing the Cleveland Cavs. You might have heard of this LeBron guy that got on their roster. Anyway, here to talk about the Cavs, their up-and-down start to the season, and LeBron’s possible destinations this summer is John Bena from the SB Nation Cavs blog, Fear the Sword.

NAS: The Cavs didn’t exactly come out firing on all cylinders to start the season, but have seemingly settled into a groove, after an impressive win on the road in LA on Christmas and then a controversial win against the Hawks on Wednesday. Is this just a case of a team starting to click or is there something else going on here with the Cavs?

The Cavaliers added a lot of pieces during the summer and time was needed to get them all working in sync. Mike Brown really didn’t force the issue during the pre-season, and everyone knows trying to find a way to keep Shaq involved (and interested) can be a challenge. I think there was still a bit of a hangover from the way last season ended as well. I don’t think the Delonte West situation should be under-estimated either. West was a huge part of the team and his off-court issues definitely weighed on the team. Even now, the Cavaliers play as Delonte goes – when Delonte is having a ‘good’ day, the Cavaliers are very tough to beat. Other days – not so much.

I think he is an asset, when the match-ups are favorable.  The Cavaliers struggled against the Lakers, Magic and Celtics last season.  This year, the Cavs already have road wins over Orlando and LA as well as season sweeps of Phoenix.  Shaq has proven that he can effectively defend the paint against the size of Orlando and LA.  Sure, there will be nights – like against the Hawks the other night – that Shaq will find himself on the bench for large portions of the 2nd half.

I think there is a good possibility, because Cleveland will do whatever it takes to win this year. In a perfect world, the Cavs would like a PF that can score – right now Anderson Varejao cannot pull defenses away from the basket. Another SG was in play as well, but if Delonte West can be a consistent option that may not be as big of a deal.

Ok, there is a scenario, sure.  :)  In my opinion, and I have always felt this way, LeBron’s loyalty to his teammates will be too great. Obviously LeBron knows his legacy is going to be tied to winning Championships and right now, and for the foreseeable future, his best chance to win is in Cleveland. The Cavaliers have done a great job to keep themselves financially flexible and Dan Gilbert is one of the most innovative owners in sports – see deal with Chinese investors. LeBron has already proven he doesn;t need New York to be a global icon.

I think James will flirt with the Knicks, Nets, and likely some unknown team that will come out of nowhere, but in the end it will be the comfort of home, along with his teammates, that will have him sign another 3-year deal with the Cavaliers.

The last time these two teams met, the Nets were able to hang with the Cavs for three quarters, until LeBron decided to take over, and then the Cavs pulled away.  The Cavs were struggling a bit at that point (they were 2-2 in the games before the Nets one), and they could have taken the Nets lightly because they were missing so many guys.   This time, things are different, the Cavs have one their last 6 and their last three wins were against the Lakers and two against the Hawks.  They also might not be taking the Nets so lightly because they have everyone back and they are coming off a win.

Rafer Alston got a DNP-CD last time out, and you can expect the same as long as Dooling is playing well.  If there ends up being a string of these, you might here some rumblings that Alston would want to be traded.

Jarvis Hayes is active for today’s game, so the Nets now have 14 players active, with only Eduardo Najera inactive.  Pretty soon we aren’t going to have to update you guys on injuries, and that will make me happy…onto the matchups!

Devin Harris vs. Mo Williams

The Devin Harris of old showed up last time these two teams played.  Devin put up 22 points and 3 assists, while getting to the line 8 times.  Mo Williams didn’t score a ton (13 points), but he had 8 rebounds and 6 assists.  A nice all-around night.  Devin looked real good against the Knicks, getting into the middle of the court and passing off to guys in position to score.  Hopefully he will be able to put back-to-back performances together.

Advantage:  Push

Courtney Lee vs. Anthony Parker

Courtney Lee and Anthony Parker are pretty much the same player.  They both had poor games last time out.  Parker only had 5 points in 21 minutes, while Lee had 8 points in 42 minutes.  They combined to go 1-7 from 3.  Courtney Lee is attacking the basket much more than he has been, and I think that is because with everyone back, he can settle into his role now.  He isn’t going to be expected to handle the scoring load.  All he has to do is play hard defense and make a shot from time to time.

Advantage:  Push

Chris Douglas-Roberts vs. LeBron James

CDR looked a little bothered by his ankle, but that is to be expected when you first come back from an ankle sprain.  Those things stick with you for a long time after you get back, but he did play well against New York, and that is all that matters.  LeBron James has been on a mission, and that 40+ performance on his birthday is proof.  I will be happy if the Nets can keep him from dancing again.

Advantage:  LeBron James

Yi vs. J.J. Hickson

Last time these two teams played, J.J. Hickson’s long arms and athletic ability really gave Josh Boone some trouble.  This is why I am thrilled Yi is back.  He is going to be able to pull Hickson away from the basket, and if his shots are falling, Hickson is going to have to close out on him.  When that happens, Yi will be able to drive right past him.  It’s fun talking about new Yi.

Advantage:  Yi

Brook Lopez vs. Shaq

Shaq had a big game last time out, part of the reason was that the Nets were playing zone and that got him some easy looks.  The other part of it was Boone was covering him for a lot of the time in the first quarter, where Shaq got most of his easy buckets.  That being said, Brook did struggle with him a bit down low.  Brook had a great game on the offensive end though, 22 and 15, plus he got to the line 11 times.  The Nets went to him down low early last game against the Knicks, and that could end up being a trend.  Get Brook his touches early, make the defense react, then spread the ball around to everyone else.

Advantage:  Push

Back from injury today: Jarvis Hayes.

After yesterday’s news out of Washington, the New York Post reports that, Nets players say they’ve never seen guns in their locker room, but they expect about 75 percent of players carry firearms on them.

Chris Douglas-Roberts on LeBron James (per Ben Couch): “LeBron has been my guy since I was a sophomore in high school,” said Nets swingman Chris Douglas-Robets, who will open the game covering James. “I’ve seen (him), played with, played against – there’s nothing you can do to stop the guy. He’s that special, he’s a special player. You just have to play him as a team. He’s like Kobe – there’s nothing you can do to stop him, you just have to play him as a team. It’s a great challenge, and I haven’t played him since I’ve been a professional, so I’m looking forward to it.”

Julian Garcia of the Daily News has the inevitable, “how the Nets can impress (free agent to-be) LeBron James story: Not only will they be as much as $26 million below the salary cap after the season, but they also should have a new billionaire owner by then – Russian tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov – and a new arena being built in Brooklyn. Though a deal is not yet in place, the Nets are also trying to move their home games for the next two seasons to the Rock in Newark, which would be a major upgrade over their current home, the outdated Meadowlands Arena.

Political columnist George Will lashes out against the Atlantic Yards Development, and becomes the latest critic to needlessly mock the Nets basketball team when trying to put down Bruce Ratner: The Atlantic Yards nonsense was compounded when Ratner, to bolster his balance sheet after the real estate collapse, sold the Nets to a Russian billionaire, who stands to benefit from Ratner’s government-subsidized seizure of other people’s property. Those people can only hope that New York’s highest court will grant their appeal for reconsideration on the grounds that Ratner’s argument is about as good as the Nets are. Through Friday, their record was 3-29.

Don’t mistake this as gloating, because this is a really awful situation for the NBA to deal with right now, but as bad as this season has been for the Nets, at least the organization isn’t deal with stuff like this:

Washington Wizards teammates Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton drew guns on each other during a Christmas Eve locker room argument over a gambling debt, according to The New York Post.

Last week, the Wizards and Arenas acknowledged that Arenas had stored unloaded firearms in a container in his locker, and the NBA said it was looking into the situation.

More details to follow, I’m sure, but this is looking to be another black eye for the NBA. So yes, I think you can safely say things can be a lot worse for a franchise than a 3-29 record.

Happy New Year everyone!

I’m hopeful that most of you read Nets Are Scorching’s retrospective of the 2000′s yesterday. In lieu of a full link dump today, I thought I’d link back to the always fantastic Al Iannazzone of The Record and Nets Insider, who runs down all of the key moments of the decade, both good and bad.

Iannazzone mentions a few rarely talked about facts regarding how the foundation for the back-to-back Finals teams were built. For starters, in 2000, if the Nets didn’t get the number 1 draft pick (to get Kenyon Martin), Rod Thorn likely wouldn’t have become team president. Second, before they traded Stephon Marbury to Phoenix for Jason Kidd, Thorn nearly sent Starbury to the Clippers for Keyon Dooling and the No. 2 draft pick.

Also, Iannazzone mentions the Nets getting the #1 pick in 2000 as a top moment, and on second blush, I’m starting to question whether or not I should have included that in my list as well. Good old Al, making me think.

Unless something dramatic happens this afternoon/evening, Sebastian and I will be back tomorrow for our Cleveland/Nets coverage.

Yeah, that’s about all I got.  Here is a video of the Nets involved in a snowball fight:

See you guys Saturday.