Nets Are Scorching

In a battle of two of the worst teams in basketball, the Nets showed they are the biggest losers, falling to the Philadelphia Sixers on the road 108-97.

• The Sixers had lost five in a row before tonight, and had never swept a season series from the Nets. But the Nets were more than willing to make winners out of Philly, playing lackluster defense most of the game and allowing one of the worst teams in basketball to score 108 points and shoot 56 percent from the floor. Seven Philly players scored in double digits, led by Andre Iguodala, who netted 20 points, 8 assists and 4 rebounds.
• Great comeback game for Chris Douglas-Roberts, who scored 23 points on 9-15 shooting.
• Terrence Williams, in a surprise start had a shaky game, scoring 13, but going 4-16 from the field.
• Brook Lopez’s tough March continued as he scored 12 points on 2-9 shooting. He also grabbed 5 rebounds and seems to be losing his temper more than usual out there.
• The Nets were shockingly accurate from the charity stripe, going 23-24 on free throws.
• The Sixers outscored the Nets 52-34 in the pain and 22-10 on the fast break.

In case you missed it, Devin Harris is expected not to play tonight, according to the beat guys.

Meanwhile, over in Twitter-land, Chris Douglas-Roberts is making a case for Terrence Williams to become a starter.

The Sixers vs. the Nets.  That is going to be a whole lot of awfulness on one basketball court tonight.  While most of you guys probably are going to read something about the Nets and how they compared to the 72-73 Sixers team (the one whose record the Nets are trying to avoid).  Let’s focus on the Nets for a minute, though.  How bad have the Nets been, well, as Matt McHale from Basketbawful points out, they are 30-70 since Devin Harris said those famous words “We knew we were going to be a playoff team” after the team’s 11-8 start last season.  That’s bad…onto the lineups (quick ones today…sorry guys).

Devin Harris vs. Lou Williams

While Devin Harris didn’t play yesterday, I expect him to play tonight as this is as good a chance as any to get win #8.  Lou Williams and Devin Harris are somewhat similar players.  Williams isn’t a true point guard, but more of a scorer first, the same with Devin Harris.  However, Devin has better point guard skills, he has better handle and better court vision which allows for his teams to get involved.  I understand why the Sixers are trying to turn Lou Williams into a PG, but to me he just doesn’t have to court vision to be a good one (4.1 APG out of your starting PG isn’t any good).

Advantage:  Devin Harris

Courtney Lee vs. Jrue Holiday

Courtney Lee has the size on Jrue Holiday (Holiday is 6’1″ while Lee is 6’5″), and he should be able to get off his shot with ease.  This is a good thing since Lee has been shooting well as of late, so more good looks = more points.

Advantage:  Courtney Lee

Trenton Hassell vs. Andre Iguodala

In my opinion, this is the only position where the Sixers have a clear cut advantage.  Hassell is still starting (though with Terrence Williams playing so well, his minutes may decline), and Andre Iguodala has the athleticism just to blow by Hassell every time.  It is going to be interesting to watch Iguodala go up against Terrence Williams.

Advantage:  Andre Iguodala

Josh Boone vs. Elton Brand

Elton Brand was a great player, but the injuries really slowed him down.

Advantage:  Push

Brook Lopez vs. Samuel Dalembert

Dalembert is a terrific defender and a shot blocker, but I think Brook Lopez can use his size to his advantage here.  If he is able to get his body into Dalembert’s he can negate his length and jumping ability.  Allowing him to knock down easy buckets.

Advantage:  Brook Lopez

AP Photo/Bill Kostrun

Hoopinion – Peachtree Hoops – View from the Couch

From the onset, last night’s game just seemed like one of those nights that was going to be totally forgettable for the New Jersey Nets. The Atlanta Hawks are everything the Nets are not: athletic, deep and offensively efficient. The last two times these teams met, the Nets lost by a combined 53 points. Then consider that the Nets were without the services of Devin Harris last night, who looked probable earlier in the day yesterday despite having a respiratory infection, but obviously was not in any kind of game shape. So the Nets were throwing a lineup out there consisting of Keyon Dooling, Courtney Lee, Trenton Hassell, Josh Boone and Brook Lopez. Umm, yeah. I guess I should be thankful the Nets only lost by 24 and not by 50.

Even when the game was tied at 22 in the first quarter, it was difficult for me to get excited. The Nets were only shooting 35 percent, and were in a close-game early because the Hawks matched their ineptitude by throwing up a 36.4 percent first quarter. Given what we know about the Hawks and what we know about the Nets, it was a bad first quarter for one team, and par for the course for the other. We did get the highlight of two consecutive free throws made by Josh Boone, which means someone should be doing a temperature check in hell. Actually, it’s a little unfair of me to rip on Boone after last night. He finished with a career high in rebounds with 20 rebounds and added 13 points to boot. That’s a double-double for Boone if I did my math correctly. He looked energized, especially in the first half and this may have been the best game I’ve seen Boone play in three seasons.

The problem is, the Nets need other players to perform for them to even stand a chance against most teams, no less a team that gives them match-up nightmares like Atlanta. You could just feel the foundation starting to shake towards the end of the first quarter when Terrence Williams – playing point guard point guard for the first time in a long while, and not point forward – turned the ball over on an 8-second violation. It set the tone for an out of sync second quarter where the Nets only scored 17 and Jamal Crawford scored 15 (and the Hawks 33 total). The Nets were going to need someone to have a stand-out offensive performance from at least two guys tonight and barely got one. Brook Lopez was solid, finishing with 21 points on 8-15 shooting, but didn’t do much else to help the team and may have been involved with the most bizarre offensive foul call I’ve ever seen when he set a screen for Keyon Dooling on Mike Bibby in the third quarter, and Bibby proceeded to jump into Lopez, grab his shoulder, and still draw a foul on the big man. I’m going to go out on a limb and say the refs botched the call there. But they probably looked at the game they were reffing and figured it wouldn’t have made a difference anyway.

A few more thoughts after the jump:

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In his game recap from last night, Julian Garcia talks extensively with Dale Schlueter, coach of the 72-73 Philadelphia 76ers.

Dave D’Alessandro captures my sentiments perfectly about the end to last night’s game: Terrence Williams waited until there was 13.9 seconds left in the game to show that he had had enough. Of course, the Hawks were asking for it: They were up 23 and pressing in the backcourt with 34 seconds left, which is a good way for winners to announce that they don’t care much about basketball decorum.

Dave D. also talks to the players about the importance of 10: “I want to get three wins more than anything,” Courtney Lee said. “We don’t talk about it, but I think it’s on everybody’s mind. You can see there’s a sense of urgency about it, because it comes up a lot. And it’s going to come up a lot more if we don’t get some wins soon.”

Rod Thorn is watching lots of college basketball: “I have watched more games than I normally would,” Thorn said. “I watched all the tournament games last week until the power went out.”

Would Knicks forward Al Harrington be interested in coming to the Nets?

Keyon Dooling wants another chance with the Nets after this season.

Devin Harris talks about Avery Johnson coaching and John Wall at PG over at Hoops World.