Nets Are Scorching

Taking Devin Harris out of our lineup takes a lot away from the Nets offense throughout the game. Late in close games his absence is magnified as we lose our leader and clear go to creator. On possessions running late in the shot clock, its often Devin’s job to have the ball in his hands with the responsibility to create something from nothing, and Devin is talented enough to usually do just that.

With him out, Jordan Farmar needed to fill his role, including that end of the game role. While I think Jordan did a fine job, some of his decisions late in regulation and throughout the overtimes left a little to be desired. Let’s take a look at the Nets’ second to last possession of regulation.

With the game tied and James Harden of the Thunder at the line shooting his second free throw, you can see here that Avery Johnson was electing to not use a timeout and instead signal a play to whom we can presume was Jordan Farmar. There was 22 seconds left in the game at this point.

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Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images

Boxscore – Daily Thunder

Well, that’s basketball for you when a guy, who was forced to fill in for an injured Devin Harris, finishes the game with 28 points and 9 assists, and rather than laud his gutty performance I instead question his basic basketball IQ at the end of last night’s marathon of a heartbreaking game between the Nets and Oklahoma City Thunder.

With 48 minutes plus three overtimes being played in Newark, where do I even start? The good? Anthony Morrow hits perhaps his biggest three ball since opening night when he drained a contested trey with time expiring at the end of regulation to send the game to overtime. After the Nets had seemingly let a possible comeback slip out of their hands against a a Kevin Durant-less Oklahoma City Thunder with some sloppy play down the stretch courtesy of Brook Lopez and Jordan Farmar.

The bad? The aforementioned Lopez, who despite scoring 28 points and grabbing 11 rebounds (that’s a double-double, I almost forgot what that looked like next to Lopez’s name), was a terrible 7-23 from the field and seemed to have the most difficult of times getting position in the post  against Nenad “Curly” Krstic of all people. Either Curly’s been pumping iron or Lopez was just totally gassed but it wasn’t until about 50 seconds left in the second OT when Lopez hit a tough angle hook  against Krstic that Brook even looked remotely confident banging down there where he allegedly belongs.

Then there’s the ugly… lots of ugly. There’s the third quarter where the Nets seemingly were trying to repeat the script from Tuesday night when they hit the snooze button against the Knicks. They were outscored by OKC 27-13 in the period.

There was the previously alluded to final minute of regulation, where the Nets stormed all the way back to take an 90-89 lead and Brook Lopez turned the ball over and fouled James Harden, giving the lead back to OKC. The Nets followed up that stinker of a play with what looked to be the final offensive set of their night when Avery Johnson must have mistook Farmar for Harris and called for a play that had Farmar dribbling around for a few seconds before driving to the lane and stepping back for a 13-footer. I gnash my teeth when Harris takes that shot in that situation, and he at least has shown the ability to hit it. Why Farmar got his name called was beyond me.

But wait, there’s more ugly. How about the end of the first overtime, when the Nets had a chance to win at the buzzer and the best they could come up with on offense is a 22-footer from Lopez in the corner. Or the in the second OT, when Avery Johnson foolishly used the team’s last timeout with the team up three and less than 5 seconds to play, only to see OKC’s Jeff Green draw a foul on a THREE POINT SHOT by Stephen Graham (let’s not even get into the fact that the stupid shot almost went in).

Things wrong with that play: 1) Why is Avery using his last timeout there rather than saving it for the possibility that OKC would find a way to tie the game, thus negating the team’s ability to advance the ball to halfcourt for the last shot of the game? 2) Why is Stephen Graham fouling Jeff Green behind the three point line? I know the 2009 playoff series between the Chicago Bulls and Boston Celtics has seemingly made the basketball world skittish about not allowing a team down three the opportunity to tie the game with a three-point shot, but with just 5 seconds left, why not let the OKC beat you with a jumper, rather than free throws? 3) Why the heck is STEPHEN GRAHAM in this game? Somewhere in the city of Springfield, MA, there’s a D-League player about to make his debut tonight saying to himself “Stephen Graham can do all that and still get PT on this team, and I’m stuck in the D-League because I forgot to set my alarm clock a couple of times?”

And then of course, what’s leaving the worst taste in my mouth was the game’s final possession. With Russell Westbrook having already taken the game over in spades scoring ALL of OKC’s 13 points in the 3OT himself (en route to his 38 points, 15 rebounds, 9 assist performance), the Nets, miraculously were still in this game down three with a shade under 7 seconds left on the clock and no timeouts. Farmar pushed the ball up the court and was at the three point line with about 3 seconds to spare when he dribbled … cut to the basket … dribbled some more … and then tried to thread a pass to Morrow in the corner, that probably wouldn’t have gotten to him before time expired even if the pass wasn’t knocked out of bounds (should there have been another tick on the clock at the end of the play? Does it even matter?).

While this game may have been entertaining as heck for the general NBA audience, and way better than any game between the Nets and Thunder missing Devin Harris and Kevin Durant has any right to be, this was just an absolutely agonizing loss for the Nets, coming off a total lethargic letdown effort 24 hours earlier at Madison Square Garden. While it’s hard for me to say with any sincerity this loss will come back and “haunt” the Nets since it’s becoming clearer and clearer that they are seemingly destined to be in the lottery again this summer, it’s gut wrenching all the same to watch them play poorly but still find a way to win the whole thing, only to do themselves in with questionable play calling and clock management issues. It’s easy to point to Harris in his suit on the sidelines and say if he plays last night, the outcome would be different, but Farmar is an experienced enough PG to understand the general tenants of clock management. And watching Lopez seemingly go through his sophomore slump a year too late, is becoming weirdly comical. It’s Nenad Krstic! Back your butt into the guy and bowl him over!

A few more thoughts after this last OT … I mean the jump:
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UPDATE: Kevin Durant is out tonight due to a sprained left knee. What’s with player’s knees?

This should be a fun one. The Nets finish up another back-to-back tonight taking on the Oklahoma City Thunder (12-6) in Newark. The young Thunder, who are barely two seasons removed from having one of the worst records in the league are starting to establish themselves as one of the Western Conference’s best teams after a so-so start to the season. Here are some keys to the game:

• Don’t Let …. Russell Westbrook … beat you: Kevin Durant was the fashionable pick as a potential MVP by the pundits before the season began, but OKC’s best player so far may actually be PG Russell Westbrook. In his last five games he’s averaging 23.4 points, 9.6 assists, 4.7 rebounds and 1.8 steals. With Devin Harris out with a knee injury, this complicates matters further.
• Keep the Thunder Off the Line: The Thunder are currently shooting about 85 percent from the free throw line this season – as a team. Yes, the whole team is shooting 85 percent. That’s insane. The Nets need to avoid the cheapie fouls, because they will lose this game if it comes down to scoring from the charity stripe.
• Running the Point: We saw Jordan Farmar do a terrific job of filling in for Devin Harris after he was ejected against the Clippers a few weeks ago. But last night against the Knicks, the offense stalled once Harris went down. Farmar has to get the Nets into their offense and keep them there all night.

UPDATE: Contest Closed folks. Thanks again! Stay tuned to our site for more ticket giveaways throughout the season.

As I mentioned earlier today, the kind people of Stubhub have provided Nets Are Scorching with some free tickets to Sunday’s 1 p.m. game against the Boston Celtics at the Prudential Center in Newark. The first two people to correctly respond to the following trivia question at markginocchio at gmail dot com will receive two tickets to the game:

In November 1993, this Newark native recorded his first career triple double against the Nets at the Meadowlands. Name that player and the three statistical categories in which he recorded double digits.

Best of luck to everyone and thanks again to Stubhub. Remember folks, you have to e-mail me your answers. Answers in the comments section won’t be considered.

The kind people of StubHub have provided Nets Are Scorching with some free tickets to Sunday’s 1 p.m. game against the Boston Celtics at the Prudential Center. At 3 p.m. today, we’ll be posting a trivia question. The first two people to e-mail us the correct answer will get two tickets to Sunday’s game.

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Kathy Willens

Box Score – Knickerblogger – Posting and Toasting

While the record book will only show this outing as one game, this was actually a tale of two games. The first game was exciting, fun, close throughout, and a great battle between two teams with a budding rivalry. The second game, which started midway through the third quarter, was an ugly, embarrassing display of basketball that should be banned from all future NBA compilations.

The difference-maker? Devin Harris’ left knee.

Don’t let Jordan Farmar’s decent numbers fool you. He hit a few threes to keep the deficit within the 8-12 point range in the fourth quarter, but he was far from effective this evening. If there’s any definitive proof needed that Jordan Farmar has yet to reach the plateau of being a starting point guard, tonight put the final nail in that coffin. He was absolutely destroyed on defense by Raymond Felton, was not routinely looking to involve others in the offense, and if not for those late threes to salvage his point total would have had an abhorrent statline.

He was thrust into that role because of this: midway through that third quarter, Kris Humphries crashed into Devin Harris, injuring his left knee. Humphries was fine, but Harris was out for the remainder of the game, is getting an MRI today, and will also not play against Oklahoma City. Truthfully, seeing how the Nets played after his departure, that’s a huge, huge difference. I am now 100% against dealing Devin until we’re absolutely sure we have a point guard coming the other way (such as D.J. Augustin, Ty Lawson, or if we’re looking ahead, Kyrie Irving). The score was 67-65 when Harris was taken out. The Knicks rushed out to a ten-point lead by the time the quarter was over, and it never really got within striking distance for the Nets. The difference on both sides of the floor was absolutely staggering.

Here’s putting it in numerical terms: before tonight’s game, the Nets scored 110.6 points per 100 possessions with Harris in the game – a number that would rank 4th in the NBA. When he’s off the court, they scored a meager 97.4 points per 100 possessions with him off the court – a number that would be last by a full three points. A difference of over 13 points & from 4th to dead last is nothing short of shocking, and tonight’s game will only widen that gap.

As mentioned, before Harris’s departure the game was actually exciting. One of the true back & forth games the Nets have had all year, the lead was constantly changing hands and never more than five points for either team. It looked like a good start to an “It’s All New” rivalry. I was fully tuned in. Win or lose, it was a fun, fun game. Harris’ statline doesn’t fully explain why – it wasn’t impressive by any means – but his presence in the game kept some sort of control on New York’s high-powered offense (or at least on Raymond Felton). But once he left the game, Farmar was left to get destroyed on the defensive end, rotations were simply not made on pick & rolls, and the game was soon locked up for New York.

This is a short recap, and truthfully, that’s because I don’t feel like I watched a full game. I feel like I watched two mini-games; one of which is still in doubt and the other should not have happened. Hopefully Devin’s injury isn’t too serious, and by the time these teams meet next we’ll have a full 48 minutes of competition.

More thoughts after the jump, including an on-off court stat that surprised the crap out of me.

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