Nets Are Scorching

Lots of shots have been fired back & forth between these two teams. A short, incomplete list: Mikhail Prokhorov & Jay-Z on the “Blueprint for Greatness,” Amare Stoudemire on the “You, Us, We, Now,” Prokhorov’s response to that advertisment (“he looks very sad. He looks like he wants to play in Brooklyn”), and most recently, an ad run on MSG radio with this quote:

“Hey Nets: you can walk like us, you can talk like us, but you ain’t never gonna be like us.  Knicks, Nets, Tuesday, 7:30, MSG.”

Mikhail Prokhorov & Brett Yormark both had quick, witty responses to the ad. Yormark mentioned that “The Knicks seem to be spending a lot of time thinking about us lately. They must have seen the steel rise at the Barclays Center,” while Mikhail Prokhorov’s response was short, sweet, and stinging: “I don’t think we want to be like the Knicks. I think we’d more like to resemble the Lakers.”

While it seems like the Nets have the upper hand off the court, the Knicks currently sport a better record and are playing at home. This will be a tough but fun match-up in what’s becoming a fierce rivalry in the press.

On that note, here are a few things to look out for in tonight’s game.

The battle down low. The Knicks lack bangers in their frontcourt, and while Brook Lopez has been floating away from the rim all three of the Nets’ power forwards make much of their living inside. Amare Stoudemire & Danilo Gallinari are also not defensive wizards, so there should be a number of opportunities for the Nets to get easy buckets inside.

Bring it, bench! The bench has averaged 27 points per game in the six wins the Nets have had this season. The Nets are able to win games because they have a deep team with skills that complement one another; if the bench isn’t producing, any game becomes difficult to win. Wilson Chandler & Toney Douglas lead a relatively strong Knicks bench, and hopefully the Nets can counter adequately.

Do not panic. This goes for those of us watching as well as those guys on the court. This is becoming a rivalry, but rivalries are won by the team (& the fans) who can hold it together better. Just because this is the Knicks doesn’t make it any different of a basketball game; the rules are the same, the baskets are the same height, and the refs will still make questionable calls. If the Nets can keep level heads in the Garden and not force bad decisions, I think we’ll see a victory tonight.

*Edit: One more big thing to watch out for is the battle to control the pace. The Knicks play the second-fastest pace in the NBA at 96.7 possessions per game, while the Nets are on the opposite side of the spectrum: at just over 88 possessions per game, they’re dead last. I’m firmly on the side that the Nets should run more, but against a team like the Knicks, it may be smarter to disrupt their speed and play more within a half-court offense as much as possible. Whichever side does a better job of controlling the pace may very well end up with the W.

For more coverage on the New York Knicks, be sure to check out TrueHoop affiliate Knickerblogger.net.

Avery Johnson’s decision to “punish” Terrence Williams for violating numerous team policies by demoting him to the D-League has already earned a heaping serving of criticism from writers and bloggers. But for Nets fans, the biggest question will come after TWill first suits up for the Springfield Armor: will he be able to be rehabilitated to the point where he could once again be the player who averaged 14 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists last March? Simply put, I don’t know.

It’s hard to gauge what might become of TWill, because there’s very little precedent here to make a judgment. As Kelly Dwyer aptly pointed out earlier this week, TWill’s “demotion” seems to be the first  case of a player being sent to the D-League as an on-the-record punishment.  For an even remotely similar case study of a player with known behavioral history being sent to the D-League by his NBA team, it’s worth looking back at what happened when the Nets sent Sean Williams to the Colorado 14ers during the 2008-09 season.  Williams, who like TWill had shown some promise his rookie year, became even more of a behavioral problem after being demoted, getting ejected from games and just generally being a pain in the neck, showing up his teammates and coaches whenever he could. It was so bad, the Nets had to recall him, where he ended up rotting on the end of the bench for another half season before mercifully being released the following year.  So for those hoping that the D-League could possibly instill some discipline in TWill during his time in Springfield, the legend of Sean Williams teaches us that it’s really in the power of the player to get his act together. If TWill continues to act a fool in the D-League, he’s either going to be left there by Avery Johnson to rot, or he’ll be recalled just to join Troy Murphy on the inactive list until he’s either traded or released.

So, that’s scenario one. But there is some sliver of a silver lining here. If Terrence Williams suits up for Springfield and gets to work on improving his game – which quite frankly warrants improvement after shooting barely 40 percent and averaging 2.5 turnovers to every 3 assists to start the season – there are some examples of young players who were sent to the D-League and came back as new and improved players. In just the past year, perhaps the two best case studies are Anthony Tolliver and Bill Walker.  In 2008-09, his rookie season, Tolliver was sent down to the D-League by the San Antonio Spurs, an organization that takes its relationship with its D-League affiliate very seriously. Tolliver eventually latched on with the Golden State Warriors last season, where he averaged 12.3 points in 30+ minutes per game.  Walker, who struggled to crack Boston’s rotation during his rookie year, was sent to the D-League and was eventually picked up by the Knicks where he averaged  11.9 points and 3.1 rebounds in about 27 minutes per game. Granted, both Walker (still in NY) and Tolliver (now in Minnesota) have seen their numbers and playing time slip at the start of this season, at least they were able to improve their games to the point that they warranted playing time on two pretty bad teams last season. It’s something.

Maybe the greatest D-League success story in recent memory is that of Aaron Brooks, the Houston Rockets’ starting PG.  After spending part of his rookie season with the D-League, Brooks has emerged into a very solid regular, averaging 19.6 points, 5.6 assists and 40 percent three-point shooting for Houston last year.  But again, in all of these success stories, none of these D-League demotions came as a result of a punishment. In all of these cases, these were players that were having a hard time getting playing time with their current teams, and the D-League was used as a resource to help them develop. Also, none of these players came into the league with the expectations of TWill, a lottery pick. The highest profile demotion last season was Hasheem Thabeet, the 2^nd overall pick in the 2009 draft. While you could question Memphis’ decision to draft him that high, even after the D-League experience, Thabeet has been a disaster, averaging less than 2 points per game in about 9 minutes of action in the early part of this season.

Overall, I’m not terribly optimistic about TWill’s future with the Nets, nor do I think the D-League demotion was the best way for Avery Johnson and Co. to handle it. Yes, there’s a legitimate shot that Williams can go down to the D-League, work on his jump shot and try to be a playmaker without turning the ball over at such an alarming rate, but there’s nothing I’ve seen from TWill’s character make-up since he’s been in the NBA that suggests he’s going to work as hard as an Aaron Brooks or Anthony Tolliver to get himself back into the league and succeed. I’m obviously hoping for the best, but I’m expecting the worst.

Nets Are Scorching’s editor emeritus and dear friend Sebastian Pruiti is writing for Basketball Prospectus with a new column, “The Clipboard.” This week, Pruiti is looking at the decline in Brook Lopez’s game which he pins on his shot selection:

The primary reason for Lopez’s decline is that is he’s playing farther away from the basket. Last year, 32.8 percent of Lopez’s shots came outside of 10 feet, this year that number has jumped to 42.8 percent. Not coincidentally, just 20.2 percent of Lopez’s shots have come at the rim. Considering Lopez’s position and the fact that he got 48.0 percent of his shots at the basket last year, that’s too much perimeter play from Lopez.

Lopez’s performance is certainly surprising. When the Nets went out and acquired Anthony Morrow, Travis Outlaw and Jordan Farmar, I thought it would provide Lopez with more space in the post to work one-on-one. Instead, teams continue to double-team and muscle Brook out of the blocks, and he’s playing into their hands by settling for jumpers. The coaches need to continue to work with Brook to get him back in the post and scoring at the basket.

Dear LaMarcus,

That is all.

Sincerely,
-Kris

Photo Credit: Bill Kostroun/AP Photo

Box Score – Portland Roundball Society – Blazersedge

So that’s what it looks like when the Nets close a game out!

The final minute of this game was fantastic. Devin Harris hit a huge 3 with just under a minute left, Travis Outlaw forced a Brandon Roy turnover, the Nets defense forced Andre Miller to shoot a 3 (Andre Miller does not shoot 3′s), Favors picked up a huge rebound on a LaMarcus Aldridge free throw miss, Outlaw knocked down two crucial free throws with 20 seconds left to push the game to a two-possession lead, the Nets forced another Andre Miller miss, Harris hit two free throws, Morrow hit two free throws, and just like that, the Nets win a close game, 98-96.

There were a lot of positives all around in this game. Devin Harris had another all-star game, finishing with 25 points, eight assists, and scoring efficiently. Anthony Morrow hit three threes, Kris Humphries was a defensive beast, and the Nets combined to shoot 53% from the floor, 50% from behind the arc, and make it to the line 35 times (making 83% from the charity stripe).

That being said, there’s also an awful lot to criticize on how the Nets played tonight, and even though they won this one, I’m going to make a bold statement: the Nets should have blown the Blazers completely out of the water.

It’s a matter of control. If there’s any word that really describes why this game was close at all, it’s that one. The Blazers seemed in near complete control of their play schemes throughout the game, while the Nets only intermittently understood theirs. The Nets shot very well, both from the field and the line, but it was the lack of control that turned what should have been a blowout into a close game.

Here’s what I mean by control. I’ve always thought of offensive rebounds and turnovers as perfect opposites; one preserves a possession, the other one throws a possession away. If a team can control the offensive glass, and exhibit the offensive control needed to prevent turnovers, they’re putting themselves in a good position to win every single game solely because they’re getting shots. Unfortunately, these areas are two facets of the game that the Nets have had significant trouble with. This game was no different.

Firstly, turnovers specifically continue to be a major problem for this team, on both ends: They make too many careless mistakes on offense and don’t force their opponents to make adjustments on defense. Between throwing passes out of bounds, throwing them into the hands of Portland players, and forcing the issue where there’s no offense to be found, the Nets show glimpses of ability in every game but simply do not take care of the basketball well enough to be an efficient team. Travis Outlaw is the king of this problem; he’ll take poor shots instead of swinging the ball around, and he doesn’t have the ballhandling skills to consistently take his man off the dribble.

On the other side of the ball, the Nets rarely force the issue on defense. The problem is that they’re just too busy trying to figure out where they’re supposed to be on defense – on too many occasions Portland just whipped the ball around until they found someone sleeping defensively and got an open fifteen-footer or three-pointer.

Or, to put this in numerical terms, the Blazers finished the game with 12 turnovers. The Nets had 11 turnovers in each half.

Offensive rebounds are the other form of control that the Nets didn’t have any of. This, again, is an issue on both sides of the floor – not only did they neglect to secure offensive rebounds, the Nets also looked completely lost when trying to prevent the Blazers from getting offensive rebounds themselves. The Nets finished the game with just three – two from rookie Derrick Favors – and allowed the Blazers an extra twelve possessions on offensive rebounds alone.

These two figures added up to an alarming stat: The Blazers attempted 78 shots last night, the Nets only 59. That’s right. The Blazers shot more than a quarter’s worth of shots in this one. The fact that the Nets won is astounding. The fact that their lack of control almost cost them this game is extremely disappointing.

I know that I might come off as overly critical – for goodness sake, the Nets haven’t been able to close any games recently and came away with a close win against an above-.500 team. That’s true, and that’s awesome. This was a great win. The reason I’m being critical is not because I think they played poorly, but because of how great they looked in those spurts. They can do better. The Nets were the more talented team on the floor last night, and there’s no doubt about that in my mind. The Blazers had three guys who really contributed (Roy, Aldridge, & Matthews), while the Nets had a balanced effort & solid contributions up & down the roster. But it’s these little things – grabbing rebounds & reversing the turnover differential – that turned a potentially huge blowout into a nailbiter down to the wire.

More thoughts after the jump.
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On to the next one. Tonight, the Nets look to bounce back from an ugly 102-86 loss against Philadelphia, taking on the Portland Trailblazers at the Prudential Center. Portland has beaten New Jersey in their last five matchups, and the Nets hope to both end that streak and pick up just their second win in 7 games.

The Trailblazers recently regained Brandon Roy, who scored 27 points in his return in a loss Friday. Roy looked strong Friday, but his career has taken a tragic turn since it was discovered earlier this month that he has literally no meniscus left in his knee. Greg Oden, whose birth name actually is “Tragic Turn,” is out for the year after needing yet another reconstructive surgery on his knee. For the Nets, Troy Murphy is active tonight but appears to be suffering from a sore Avery Johnson. Terrence Williams will be away from the team given his move to D-League affiliate Springfield Armor.

Here are a few things to look out for in tonight’s game.

Finish them – please! Last night’s first key to the game was to execute late in the game, and sure enough, that became the difference-maker. The Nets & Sixers were tied 66-all after three quarters, and sure enough the Nets flipped their defense switch to “off” in the final twelve minutes. In that home stretch, the Nets allowed 36 points and turned a close game into a rout. The Nets have got to learn how to execute over the full 48 consistently if they’re going to win games. Philadelphia is a very beatable team, and the Nets just failed to take advantage. Hopefully Portland is a different story.

Get Brook going in the second half. Speaking of not closing. Last night, Brook Lopez had 10 free throws in the first quarter and none in the final three. This isn’t an outlier, it’s a trend. So far this season, Lopez is averaging 11 points per game in the first half and only 7.6 in the second & overtime. Last year, the difference between first & second was only 9.9 to 8.9. This is as much a long-term thing as it is an issue for tonight. He’s got to get going for more than just the first 24 if  the Nets are going to have a chance.

Step it up, Tranthony Morrlaw. These guys continue to be a conundrum – either one of them has a good game & the other has a poor one, or neither is particularly effective. I’m still waiting for the day that both of them show up to play – if those two are on, the Nets will become much more difficult to defeat.

For more coverage of the Portland Trailblazers, check out TrueHoop affiliate Portland Roundball Society.

AP Photo/Michael Perez

Box Score – Philadunkia – Liberty Ballers

The Nets unquestionably have looked like an improved team this season, but every once in a while, they have a tendency to remind me that they’re still coming off of a miserable 12-win season. Last night’s fourth quarter in Philadelphia was more than just a reminder of everything that went wrong last season – it was an anvil on top of the head for Nets fans.

In many ways, the final score of 102-86 bails the Nets out from some of their responsibility. It looks like they were just romped by a livelier, better prepared Sixers team. While that was ultimately true, the game was there for the Nets to win until there was about 6:50 left in the fourth quarter. The fact that the Nets nosedived at such a stunning rate in less than a 7 minute window, indicate just how deplorably the team played in the fourth quarter.

The final line of the fourth quarter was Sixers 36, Nets 20. The Nets two biggest fourth quarter problems came home to roost – they couldn’t shoot, and they couldn’t defend. Last night was certainly not a banner night for the “Devin Harris is back to his old self on defense” fan club. Philly’s two point guards, Jrue Holiday and Lou Williams combined for 35 points, 18 assists and 1 turnover. Holiday (20 points, 13 assists) was especially slippery in the fourth quarter as Harris was consistently letting him get by him into New Jersey’s “secondary” of Brook Lopez and Kris Humphries down low. One instance was probably the turning point of the game for the Nets, when at the 6:30 mark Holiday used a screen to skit by Harris where he was met and fouled by Brook Lopez in the corner, converting a four point play that stretched the Sixers’ lead from 4 to 8. The Nets never got closer after that and the Sixers went on to finish 15-18 from the field in the fourth, and shot 51 percent overall for the game, compared to 41 percent for the Nets.  It was so embarrassing for the Nets that former retread Tony Battie even put on a clinic, hitting all three of his shot attempts in the fourth quarter, including a rim rocking dunk with about two minuted left in the game. I would question where that spring in Battie’s step was last season, but I’m assuming he, Rafer Alston and Bobby Simmons were all channeling their inner Roger Murtagh’s while with the Nets and were simply “too old for this …” well, you know.

Did I mention that the Sixers only had 3 wins coming into this game? While there certainly are no gimmees in this league, for the Nets to fall apart like this against a team that’s had an equally hard time closing out games in the fourth quarter was just stunning.

There was a bit of a silver lining in this game with Lopez, but as is always the case with Brook, there’s a catch. His final state line of 25 points, 6 rebounds and 2 blocks looked great, especially when he did a good job of taking what the defense gave him and finished 5-7 from beyond 15 feet.  He was especially effective in the first quarter when got to the free throw line 10 times, sinking 9, but here’s the “catch.” He didn’t get to the free throw line again the rest of the game.

A few more thoughts after the jump:

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Tonight at 7:30 p.m., the New Jersey Nets (5-10) play host to the last place Philadelphia 76ers (3-13). Here’s a couple of quick things I’ll be looking for tonight:

Finish them! – In their past 5 games, the Nets have played neck-and-neck with their opponents until the final minutes. That’s great. Unfortunately, the Nets have lost 4 of those games, and the only game they won, went into overtime after the team blew a late fourth quarter lead. The Nets need to finish what they started. Maybe if they had a go-to scorer…. oh, I’m just kidding (not exactly).

Can They Score at the Four? – Nothing against Kris Humphries, who’s been a revelation at the PF, but Hump and Derrick Favors combined for 6 points on Wednesday night against Boston. The rebounding is nice, but if Troy Murphy is going to stay in a suit on the sidelines, the Nets need a little more than 6 points from both of those players going forward.

Don’t Cross the Little General – Troy Murphy can’t get activated because Avery Johnson thinks he’s out of shape, and now Terrence Williams has been demoted to the D-League for violating team policies. So is there any question about who’s in charge of this team? Accountability is a great thing in the NBA, but how is the rest of the roster going to respond? Typically, players only seem to respond to a dictator when they start winning. At 5-10, the Nets are better than last year, but they’re certainly not winners.

Feel free to comment on the game in here, but please be mindful of our commenting constitution. And of course, let’s go Nets.