Despite the 117-111 loss to the Knicks last night, the good news is the beleaguered Nets bench stepped up their game a bit last night.
Derrick Favors had 12 points before fouling out in 19 minutes. Stefan Bondy captured an interesting exchanged between he and Avery Johnson:
“He tweaked his ankle a little bit, and I was just asking him if he’s injured of or is it hurting. He said it’s hurting. We talked to (the trainer), I said, okay, strapped up his sneaker a little bit harder,” Johnson said. “I was glad he fought through it – a 19-year-old rookie.”
What Favors did next – on the very next possession, in fact – was an alley-oop jam to highlight a 30-13 run for the Nets to start the second half.
Al Iannazzone talks to Devin Harris who was thrilled by the bench’s performance:
“It’s great to see the bench playing well,’’ said Devin Harris, who sat the final 19:56 because Jordan Farmar went off and scored 21 points in that time. “The guys came and gave us great energy that third quarter. Jordan came in and gave us a tremendous effort. Terrence Williams found himself in the second half. Damion James came in and gave us quality minutes. We had a Derrick Favors sighting.”
Speaking of Farmar, our old friend Sebastian Pruiti does a little breakdown on a gamble the PG took down the stretch that resulted in the game clinching three for Toney Douglas.
Still, it’s hard to beat up Farmar too much for his performance last night, and while Favors managed to pick up three fouls in his first two minutes, it was good to see that athleticism people talked so much about it. The biggest problem for this team offensively still seems to be the lack of gel amongst the starting five. I don’t know what’s going to improve that except time and patience.
Good afternoon Nets Fans! Tonight the team will cross the Hudson River into Manhattan to take on the rival New York Knicks for the first and only time this preseason. After a disappointing trip to the Far East where the Nets dropped both games to the Rockets, they will look to get back on track tonight at MSG. With the presence of new Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, I think this rivalry will have some added juice again, and that could start tonight. The Nets play the Knicks “for real” for the first of four times this season on November 30th.
A few things to keep an eye on tonight:
- The Power Forward. With Troy Murphy still sidelined Avery Johnson has clearly been unable to find a reliable starting power forward. He has used Kris Humphries, Derrick Favors and now Joe Smith at the starting “4″ slot so far in the preseason. None of them have been productive at all, with Favors and Smith each putting up a bagel in the scoring department in the last game each started. Murphy should begin practicing this weekend but in these final two games I’m sure Avery would like to see some consistency out of the power forward slot.
- The Bench Besides T-Will. Terrence Williams was outstanding in China, averaging 18 points and 7 rebounds in over 30 minutes per game. But the rest of the bench was invisible in both games against Houston, scoring just 10 points in the 1st game and a pathetic 4 in the 2nd. The Nets need to see some more productivity out of guys like Farmar, Favors (or whoever is not the starting power forward) and Stephen Graham, in order to take some heat off the starters and not rely on those 5 and T-Will to handle all of the scoring.
- Assist-to-Turnover Ratio. Taking care of the ball will be one of the keys for this incredibly young team this season, and they have not done a very good job of it during the preseason. In the first game in China, the Nets only turned the ball over 11 times but had just 11 assists on 81 points scored. Although they upped their assists to 16 in the second game, they also turned the ball over 17 times. Tonight I’ll be interested to see if the Nets can keep their turnover numbers down while increasing their assist total.
Name: Travis Outlaw
Position: SF
Height: 6’9″
Weight: 207 lbs
Birth Date: September 18, 1984 (Age: 26)
Birthplace: Starksville, MS
Number: 21
Drafted: 23rd Pick of 1st Round in 2003
Experience: 7 years
Contract: $7 million
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The Nets seemingly made a few splashes to upgrade their PF depth this off-season, drafting Derrick Favors and trading for Troy Murphy. But with the season starting in about a week, the Nets are thin at the position, with Favors struggling and Murphy still hurting. Al Iannazzone reports that the starting nod could possibly go to 35-year-old journeyman Joe Smith:
“It’s a big question mark for us right now,” Johnson said after Monday’s practice. “We’re trying to evaluate. We’ve given a few guys a chance to start. It’s going to be a revolving situation until Troy gets back.”
Fortunately, the Nets received some good news yesterday and said that Murphy was making progress with his back strain, though his status for next week’s opener is still in doubt:
New Jersey Nets forward Troy Murphy has made considerable progress following treatment for a low back strain/inflammation, but will not play in either of the Nets two preseason games this week against New York and Boston. Murphy is expected to resume practice with the team this weekend.
The PF position has been a place of weakness of the Nets for years now, and I was really counting on seeing that trend come to an end this season. While I still have confidence in Favors, the key is Murphy, who was going to bring a veteran stability (not to mention three-point shooting and rebounding) to the floor. I think the Nets will also look a lot less lost on offense once Murphy is back and playing his game.
There are plenty of new things about the New Jersey Nets this season. They will begin their first regular season at the Prudential Center in Newark at the end of this month, playing under new owner Mikhail Prokhorov, with a host of new players on the roster. But my question will be the same as it has been over the past decade: Will anyone actually show up for Nets home games?
Let me give you a little bit of background before you continue reading. I was lucky enough to have season tickets for about 10 years from the late 1990s through the mid-2000s. I went to anywhere from 15-30 (depending on Playoff runs) games with my father each season, and to say we were diehards would be an understatement. There were some great games (2003 Eastern Conference Finals Game 4) and some tough ones (2004 Eastern Conference Semis Game 6) but I always found myself asking the same question when attending these games: Where are all the fans? Sure the place would be full in the regular season against teams like the Knicks and Lakers, but often times the fans of those teams would be louder than the Nets fans. The Playoffs were different of course, and that concrete dungeon in the Meadowlands was actually rocking at times. But I remember Game 1 of the First Round in 2002, when it wasn’t even a sellout. This was the first playoff game for the top seed in the East, a very exciting team that had a great season led by Jason Kidd. It was arguably the highest point the New Jersey Nets franchise had ever reached (before the run to the Finals) and Continental Airlines Arena (at the time) was still 1,500 fans short of a sellout. As a fan I wanted to see the Nets win and play well, but I also wanted to see others around New Jersey get excited about the team and support them as I did.
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Name: Stephen Graham
Position: SG/SF
Height: 6’6″
Weight: 215 lbs
Birth Date: June 11, 1982 (Age: 28)
Birthplace: Wilmington, DE
Number: 26
Drafted: Undrafted
Experience: 5 years
Contract: $992k
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Al Iannazzone gives a great breakdown of the Nets Chinese trip and notes while the team may talk of a great experience at practice today, there are scores of questions on the basketball side. Outside of Brook Lopez and Devin Harris, no one seems to know what the identity of this team is, and Iannazzone is spot on about Terrence Williams in his column:
The problem is that, aside from Terrence Williams, most of the other players are shooters. Also a problem is that Williams, who isn’t a shooter, tried to be one in China. He took eight more shots than Lopez and 18 more than Harris. That’s far too many for Williams, a spectacular athlete who is at his best setting up his teammates or getting to the basket. Williams didn’t do that enough in China, but scored 36 points, second most on the trip behind Lopez’s 42. Teams are going to let Williams shoot jumpers all he wants. It’s not a good thing for the Nets if he’s a volume shooter, as it’s not his strength.
It’s a delicate balance with TWill and I think he’s on the wrong side of things right now. But he’s also one of the few players on this team who seems capable of making his own shot.
