Nets Are Scorching

It was just another Nets/Hawks match-up, as Atlanta blew away New Jersey for the third straight time this season, winning 108-84 at the Izod Center tonight. It was the 14th consecutive loss at home for the Nets, who now have 15 games left to secure three victories to avoid all-time infamy.

• It was a career night for Josh Boone who finished with 13 points and 20 rebounds. He even sunk two free throws in the first quarter.
• Brook Lopez finished with 21 points on 8-15 shooting, but only 4 rebounds.
• Nice night off the bench for Terrence Williams, who finished with 15 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists. He picked up a flagrant foul at the end of the game which I don’t blame him for. Want me to explain? Read “Thoughts on the Game” tomorrow.
• But that was it for the Nets, highlight-wise. They shot 38 percent for the game, turned the ball over 16 times and only scored 17 points in the second quarter (while allowing 33).
• Jamal Crawford was unstoppable off the bench, scoring 25 points on 11-18 shooting. They also got a strong performance from Marvin Williams (15 points, 5 rebounds) and Al Horford (15 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists).

The Nets have been run out of the building by the Hawks twice already, however the Hawks are going to be without Joe Johnson tonight.  Rookie guard Jeff Teague will be starting with Mike Bibby sliding to the 2-guard spot.  As for the Nets in terms of health, Devin Harris missed practice yesterday because of a sickness, but he said he was going to try to play through it.  Onto the lineups…

Devin Harris vs. Jeff Teague

With Harris being sick, expect to see a lot of Keyon Dooling and Terrence Williams playing the point.  If you had to pick a night this was going to happen though, tonight is a good one.  You have a rookie guard starting while Joe Johnson is out.

Advantage:  Devin Harris

Courtney Lee vs. Mike Bibby

I expect for Courtney to have a big game tonight.  Bibby isn’t the best defender in the world, and Lee seems to have shaken that hand injury that caused him to struggle for two games.

Advantage:  Push

Trenton Hassell vs. Marvin Williams

Marvin Williams hasn’t been playing that great, but he is going to be going up against Trenton Hassell…so yeah…he might be due for a big one tonight.

Advantage:  Marvin Williams

Josh Boone vs. Josh Smith

You saw what a guy like Luis Scola can do when Josh Boone is covering him, and no disrespect to Scola, but Josh Smith is going to create havoc.  He is more athletic than Boone, which will lead to a lot of baskets on the inside (or worst, fouls on Brook Lopez).  The only hope the Nets have against Smith is if he starts settling for outisde jumpers, but he hasn’t done it a ton this year.

Advantage:  Josh Smith

Brook Lopez vs. Al Horford

This might be the only reason to watch the game tonight.  To see these two young and talented centers go at it.  It will be interesting to see who comes out on top.

Advantage:  Push

Brett LaGree from the Hawks TrueHoop site Hoopinion is back for a quick final round of Bloggers Talk where I ask him about his thoughts on Atlanta’s chances in the playoffs.

NAS: Do you get the sense, especially with Joe Johnson’s FA status, that this is the last chance for this core group of guys to go on some kind of meaningful run in April/May?

It’s weird, in that, because no one (Joe Johnson maybe included) knows what Joe Johnson is even likely to decide to do in free agency either we’re seeing this group for the last time (I think it’ll take at least two significant trades to reconstitute this team if he leaves.) or we’re going to see this group for a long time because there won’t be any money left over if he re-signs.

I know the Hawks would have their MLE I just don’t think they’d use it.

NAS: After the past two years of playoff basketball for the Hawks, what would you consider an “acceptable” ending to the season?

It’s unreasonable to expect the Hawks to beat either Cleveland or Orlando in a seven-game series so getting to the Conference Finals would be a tremendous achievement. Playing a competitive series against either of those two would be acceptable. Especially competing against the Magic, who are both better than the Hawks in absolute terms and a terrible matchup for the Hawks.

Before he was drafted last June, the one word that always seemed to be associated with Terrence Williams was “versatile.” He had the size and muscle to be an option at small forward, but his ball handling and passing ability made him an option to run the offense and create match-up problems as a point forward. To demonstrate his versatility, he had a double-double in his first professional game in October, and three more before the end of November. But his up and down shooting marred portions of his rookie season, and some off-the-court attitude issues cut into his playing time. So, while the following might sound like an obvious statement, let me preface it by saying that I’m ecstatic that TWill has gotten his act together to be in a position for me to be so obvious:

Terrence Williams does a lot of things really, really well.

For the month of March, Williams has averaged 14 points, 4.9 assists and 6.7 rebounds in about 30 minutes of playing time. It’s been a stunning turnaround for the rookie who some were saying early-on was bordering on becoming a bust. Instead, TWill has forced his way onto the court during critical end-of-game situations, primarily because he can do so many things to help his team win at three different positions.

Let’s start with some passing numbers. At the beginning of the season, I used to pick apart Williams for getting too “cute” with his passes, and underestimating the speed of the NBA game. In the past six weeks, TWill seems to be grasping this idea, and while he still makes mistakes, he’s also distributed some of the prettiest dimes I’ve ever seen from a player his size. When looking at how he stacks up against other SFs in the league (which is still his most natural position in my opinion), TWill’s 16.3 assist ratio is good for 6^th at the position. Against other rookies, TWill’s ratio places him 10^th, but he’s the only non-PG in the top 10, according to ESPN’s statistics.

As for his rebounding – which I think might be his strongest skill – TWill’s rebound rate of 11 is good for 9^th at the SF position (and tied with LeBron James, who as I’m reminded often, is built like a linebacker). He is comfortably the best non PF/C rebounder on the Nets’ roster.

The one knock against TWill continues to be his shooting percentage, but he even has a strong suit there. While it’s still a relatively small sample, Williams as demonstrated a real penchant for the corner three, shooting 12-22 (55 percent) from that spot on the floor. As I’ve ranted on about in the past, the Nets were one of the most effective teams from the corner last year, and I think they would have gotten off to a better start if they had a healthy Jarvis Hayes to hit from the corner, along with a more confident Courtney Lee. As it stands, Williams may want to hide out in the corner a bit more on offense as well, but he may be too busy helping his team by running the offense and grabbing rebounds to focus on that statistic right now.

Terrence Williams (more on him later) has some sage-like advice for himself in the latest from Dave D’Alessandro: “I learned you have to keep your mouth shut,” he said. “Honestly, that’s it. Because you get further with silence than you do speaking out or acting out. The lesson taught to me was to pay attention to other guys, and learn from them. I really wasn’t ready for that.”

Fred Kerber with some more TWill money quotes:  “I want to get every rebound and every assist in the game. But one, I don’t play the whole game and two, I don’t think Brook [Lopez] would let me get every rebound,” Williams said. “Points will come . . . but assists and rebounds, that’s what I have to do.”

The Nets need three more wins to avoid infamy, but they’ll likely enter tonight’s game with Atlanta without Devin Harris.

NetsDaily continues its breakdown of all things Mikhail Prokhorov.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a little profile on Jay-Z’s business success.