Thoughts on the Game: Nets Can’t Defend the Inside or Outside
AP Photo/Tom Strattman
Eight Points Nine Seconds – Indy Cornrows
In most basketball games, there’s the big picture reason for the outcome – the overall theme of a game – and then the microcosm moment(s) where the momentum of the match-up officially swing in one team’s direction carrying them to the finish line. What I found interesting about last night’s 115-102 victory for the Indiana Pacers over the Nets was the fact that the big picture reason for the Nets loss and the microcosm moment where the game was officially lost were on totally opposite sides of the spectrum in terms of how a team can lose a game.
Let me explain. A quick look at the box score and a big picture statistic sticks out like a sore thumb for the Nets. They allowed the Pacers to score 60 points in the pain on only 12 fast-break points. This just reflects extraordinarily bad interior defense for the Nets. There were just way too many baskets for Indiana throughout the game where it was a one-on-one matchup for their offensive player right under the rim. Like at the 7:00 mark in the first when off of two free throws from Brook Lopez, Danny Granger beat the entire Nets team back down the court and was wide open under the rim for a dunk. The Nets appeared to have Courtney Lee guarding Grander early, and Lee lost track of him in these situations several times. With Lee, probably the Nets’ best defender, having an off game like this, you just knew it was going to be one of those kinds of games defensively for the Nets.
Yet, even with these lapses, the Nets led by as many as 12 early, and even when Indiana started to make their move in the third quarter, the Nets hung around and stayed close to even until about the 4 minute mark where the microcosm moment was introduced. While it would have seemingly made more sense if the Pacers were able to go on their run by making a few uncontested baskets at the rim, they were actually able to sink the Nets for good from the outside. The Nets completely forget that Troy Murphy is one of those big-men who can shoot, and Murphy made them pay by hitting back-to-back treys, extending a Pacers lead from 2 to 8. While an 8-point lead wasn’t insurmountable for the Nets a night earlier against the Bulls, playing the road-half of a back-to-back probably sucked the last bit of fight out of the Nets, and they were never truly “in” the game from that point forward.
So, while it may be easy on the surface to say the Nets lost this game because of their interior defense, I felt the nail in the coffin came on poor perimeter defense. In other words, it’s the kind of game you expect the worst team in the league to lose, especially against a hot team like Indiana who are 9-2 in their last 11 and look a lot better down the stretch than how they’ve looked most of the season.
A few more thoughts after the jump.