In what was easily the best game of the year, the Nets win this one 115 to 87. As expected, the Hornets were sluggish right from the start, as the Nets jumped to a 12 point lead at the break. The Nets had a pretty rough 3rd quarter, as the Hornets cut the lead to 7, however a quick 6-0 extended the Nets lead to 13 and effectively broke the Hornets back.
- Like I was hoping they would, the Nets ran the ball tonight, getting 40 points in transition compared to the Hornets 11.
- Terrence Williams was obviously the player of the game tonight with 14 points and 14 assists in 30 minutes.
- Depth has been an issue for the Nets all year, but tonight all 11 of the Nets on the active roster got in the scoring column. 8 got into double figures with CDR leading the way with 17 points.
- After setting their season high in assists against the Spurs, the Nets broke it again, dishing out 34 assists on 46 baskets.
- With the Hornets making a run in the third quarter, Devin Harris had a huge chasedown block, swinging the momentum back in their favor.
- The Nets as a team had 10 blocks, with Kris Humphries getting 5 of those.
After beating the Spurs and playing the Suns real tough for most of the game (except, surprise, the third quarter), the Nets are up against the Hornets who have Chris Paul back. However, the Hornets could be a little fatigued tonight. This is their second game in a row, and third in 4 days. We saw the effect of playing two games in a row (remember that game against Chicago?). I would like to see the Nets try and push the tempo today, especially since the Nets haven’t played since Wednesday (the Nets are pretty good with some days off). Onto the lineups…
Devin Harris vs. Chris Paul
Advantage: Chris Paul
Courtney Lee vs. Marcus Thornton
Advantage: Push
Terrence Williams vs. Morris Peterson
Advantage: Push
Yi vs. David West
Advantage: David West
Brook Lopez vs. Emeka Okafor
Advantage: Brook Lopez
Nets fans may have gone through agony this season, but so have a few other fanbases around the league. Take the New Orleans Hornets for example, a perpetual playoff team in the Chris Paul era that will not be playing in the postseason this year. Here to talk about the disappointment of the fanbase, and where the organization goes from here, is Ryan Schwan, from the New Orleans Hornets TrueHoop site, Hornets247.
NAS: The Hornets are headed to the lottery for the first time in a few seasons. What’s the overall sense from fans about the direction of the franchise? Does the organization have the resources in place to get back into the playoffs next season?
The sense from fans is general disappointment. The team was supposed to recover this year – and for a variety of reasons – did not. In general, most of the woes have been attributed to the front office – but even that isn’t clear cut, as the remarkable play of Darren Collison and Marcus Thornton somewhat mitigates earlier personnel mistakes.
As for the resources to get the team back into the playoffs – they are available. The Team has more than $30 million worth of expiring contracts next year. The only problem, of course, is those contracts reach their highest value halfway through next season, so it may be difficult to turn them into assets that get the team into the playoffs for next season.
NAS: With Chris Paul missing nearly half the season this year for the first time in his career, are their concerns going forward about his durability and how much he can be relied on to carry the team?
Paul had knee surgery, and that is never good. However, I’m not a doctor, and the surgery Paul went through has so many degrees of severity it’s really impossible to tell what impact it will have. Amare Stoudemire had the same surgery(twice) – and his athleticism has been barely impacted at all. Penny Hardaway also had the surgery (twice) and it essentially ended his career. It’s impossible to tell.
What I do know is that since Paul has returned, he has shown every one of the skills he displayed before the injury. The only thing that has been missing since his return is the full over-the-top aggression he’s known for. Of course, the team is out of playoff contention and for the first time in his pro career he’s figuring out how to play next to two backcourt players capable of scoring. That’s got to be a big adjustment.
The storyline emanating from the beat writers is the future prospects, or lackthereof of GM/head coach Kiki Vandeweghe. With incoming owner Mikhail Prokhorov more or less confirming that Rod Thorn and Brett Yormark are going to stick around as President and CEO, and rumors circulating that Andrei Vatuin, who worked with Prokhorov with CSKA Moscow, may be joining the Nets’ front office, the status of Kiki has been ominously quiet.
“I was brought in initially to help rebuild the team,” Vandeweghe told Fred Kerber in the Post. “We had some success doing that in Denver and Dallas. I’m proud of the things we’ve got going.
The fact that the Nets are finally starting to play better basketball in the season’s last 6 weeks makes Kiki look like less of a pollyanna for saying this. However, for the most part, his tenure as both GM and coach he been a disaster filled with drama and underachieving. But is it Kiki’s fault? Dave D’Alessandro plays devil’s advocate:
There are no good ways to play this for a guy who never considered himself anything but a team-builder, one who was resistant to taking over as head coach for the first time in his career back on Dec. 2.
But Vandeweghe can’t say he didn’t sign up for this. He can’t say that the franchise was too cheap to go out and find an experienced guy, which everyone knows was the case. He can’t even say that he hated what he has endured these last four months, because the opposite is true — he got a kick out of coaching.
From my own perspective, I always found it odd that if Prokhorov is judging strictly on performance here, that Kiki is a goner while Thorn stays. Thorn is as much responsible for this mess as Kiki is. While I do have a soft spot for Thorn primarily for what he did with the organization in the early 2000s, and I think some of his draft picks (Marcus Williams, Antoine Wright) are unfairly assailed due to 20-20 hindsight, perhaps if Thorn did a better job building the depth of this team below Kidd, Jefferson and Carter, this team wouldn’t have been challenging for the worst of all time for a majority of this season.
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