Neither team wanted to win this one, but alas there can’t be any ties in basketball, so they kept playing…and kept playing until the Nets pulled away from the Bulls in double overtime to get the 127-116 win.
- T-Will picked up his first career triple double going for 27 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists. He actually needed that one assist from the final 3 minutes of regulation on, but he didn’t get it until the final seconds of the second OT.
- Down 2 with only a couple seconds left, everyone thought the Nets were going to go for the three and the win. However, Courtney Lee attacked the basket, forced rotation, and Brook Lopez ended up with a tip-in dunk at the buzzer.
- This little stretch of league pass games makes me oh so grateful for the announcing crew we have when we watch Nets games. The Bulls’ announcers were terrible tonight, and Stacey King (their color man) even went so far to pretend to gag as the Nets missed a few free-throws. Really unprofessional, and in the end he ends up looking silly as the Bulls’ choked multiple times late.
- Brook Lopez has the tip I mentioned before, and he finished with 26 points and 14 rebounds.
- Courtney Lee played well also. He scored 16 points, but the biggest moment might have came where he stopped Derrick Rose on an ISO with 12 seconds left. With no help.
- The Nets outscored Chicago by 20 in the paint, by 10 in transition, and by 5 at the foul line. There is your game right there.
The Nets are coming off a pretty disappointing performance against the Bucks, and I expect that trend to continue tonight against the Bulls. It’s not that the Bulls are much more talented than the Nets (I mean, they had tons of trouble beating a LeBron-less Cavs team), but they are fighting for something. That something is the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Nets on the other hand, don’t really have nothing to play for. While they are playing looser (in my opinion), they aren’t really playing with the same hunger as they were since they won magical #10. Playing looser is good in close games, but unfortunately the Nets haven’t been in any recently. The Bulls are coming off a back-to-back while the Nets are coming off of a day of rest, so that may be a factor. Onto the lineups:
Devin Harris vs. Derrick Rose
Advantage: Devin Harris
Courtney Lee vs. Kirk Hinrich
Advantage: Push
Jarvis Hayes vs. Luol Deng
Advantage: Luol Deng
Yi vs. Taj Gibson
Advantage: Taj Gibson
Brook Lopez vs. Joakim Noah
Advantage: Brook Lopez
If you are a regular reader of the blog, you already know about the fantastic site HoopData.com (and seriously if you have never been there, you need to go…now). In addition to all of the stats that they provide, they also have a really cool feature called Motion Charts. These motion charts take all of the information they provide, and they display it in a way that makes it really easy to spot trends. They display three areas of statistics using motion charts; they are player stats, four factors, and what we are looking at today, shot locations.
Brook Lopez
Brook is a fantastic player, and his improvement this year over last year is fantastic. The main reason why is his improvement inside 10 feet:
This motion chart tells us that Brook Lopez is not only getting more attempts inside 10 feet, but he is shooting even better from this location. Last year, Brook was shooting 40% from this spot while shooting 2 shots per game. This year, Brook is taking 2.62 shots/game inside 10 feet while making 49% of his shots.
Read more…
Expect another delay with the NBA’s approval of Mikhail Prokhorov. Formalities, we’re told, as they’re just waiting for the Brooklyn area to clear (aka, Daniel Goldstein to move).
Andrey Vauskin, president of CSKA in Moscow and a rumored member of the Nets FO next season is apparently unhappy with the cost-cutting of his ownership.
It’ll be Yao vs. Yi in China during the preseason as the Rockets face the Nets (uniforms subject to change).
Evan Turner is ready to come to the NBA and lose: ”I don’t plan on losing, but if it happens I always say you have to pay your dues,” Turner said. “The most important part is learning from your losses. You have to have confidence and be committed to the mission.”
