Nets Are Scorching

The Nets have been in another awful slump. They’ve lost 10 of their last 11 and now sit at 10-30 through nearly half of the season. The biggest story surrounding this team has been taking place off the court, with the whole Carmelo Anthony saga, and from an outsider’s point of view, it probably looks like that is affecting the Nets play. Since the three-way trade rumors with the Nuggets and Pistons became public last weekend, the team has lost three in a row, two of them by double digits. But before we all jump to conclusions that this trade is affecting the team’s play, let’s take a closer look at this past week’s games.

The Nets should have won their game at Phoenix last Wednesday, no doubt about it. They outplayed the Suns and had a 15-point lead in the 4th quarter. But they were unable to finish the game and got dominated in overtime. That doesn’t mean they were distracted and not ready to play. Devin Harris had an especially strong first quarter and led the Nets to 28 points in the opening period. They were in a position to win this game and get the road trip off to a fast start. However the effort in that game showed me the Nets did come out ready to play.

Friday night in Los Angeles the Nets put forth another solid effort. Brook Lopez bounced back from a rough night in Phoenix with 35 points on 13 of 19 shooting. The Nets lost by 12 but it was a two-point game midway through the fourth quarter, so the final score was not exactly indicative of the entire game. With the way they lost the game last Wednesday in Phoenix, I wrote that I thought Friday night in LA could get ugly. But again the team was ready to play from the start and did not get embarrassed against one of the best teams in the NBA.

And then we come to Saturday night’s game, another the Nets should have won. They had a one-point lead with under 2 minutes remaining and again were unable to finish. Lopez was fantastic again with 32 points (though he had just 3 boards, shocker) and the Nets got a strong performance off the bench from Sasha Vujacic. Yet to no one’s surprise the Nets left Portland with another loss, their fifth in a row.

Throughout this entire, frustrating season the Nets have been unable to finish games. They have played opponents’ close, often times some of the best teams in the NBA, for 40-45 minutes and then faded down the stretch. But I refuse to believe that these last three losses have anything to do with the Anthony trade hanging over their heads. Overall it’s not a good thing that these trade talks continue, but I don’t see it having a big effect on the team as of yet. If they were getting blown out of the building and not even competing, it would be one thing, but they are keeping these games close and should have actually won two of the first three on the road trip.

I will keeping an eye on their effort today in Golden State and hoping it’s the same as in the first three games of this Western swing…

Just because nothing about these ‘Melo trade talks are easy, David Aldridge reported last night that the Nuggets have granted the Nets permission to speak with Carmelo Anthony about signing an extension with the team. As has been the case throughout this whole ordeal, there was a conflicting report, this time in the form of a tweet from Nets beat writer Stefan Bondy. Carmelo Anthony then gave some rambling comments indicating he had no interest in talking with Nets brass:

“I can’t talk to them people,” Anthony said after scoring 12 points on 5-for-17 shooting and sitting most of the fourth quarter in Denver’s 110-97 loss to San Antonio. “The Denver Nuggets still pay me. I can’t talk to nobody.”

Please. Let. This. End.

Is that Charlie from It's Always Sunny? (Sam Forencich/NBAE via Getty Images)

You know things are bad for your basketball team when your most significant takeaway from a game is that one of the opponent’s players looks like a character from one of your favorite sitcoms. It’s true that this season’s team has drained most of the emotion out of watching games. I used to embarrass myself with far too many fist pumps (Double fist pump? What does it mean? It’s starting to look like a TRIPLE fist pump!) at the sight of the slightest good thing. I used to curse at the top of my lungs at every miscue. Now I just crack jokes on Twitter for the whole game. Surprisingly, this change didn’t occur last season, when the Nets were even worse. Maybe that’s because those teams didn’t even have a shot at winning, so I could get emotionally invested in the smaller details. This year’s team has failed me so many times, that it has become worthless to get too involved in the game. Your New Jersey Nets, everybody! Onto the game.

The Nets looked good in this contest. They shot 50 percent from the field. They had 50 points in the paint. Travis Outlaw shot 5-of-7! (No, not on free throws. On field goals! I know, right?) Brook Lopez was a beast again with 32 points, raising his total in the last two nights to 67. Yeah, he only had 3 rebounds. But aren’t rebounds just novelty items for Lopez at this point?

Anyway, the Nets only scored 89 points in the game. Tonight’s debacle is a good reminder that efficiency doesn’t win games — scoring more points than the team you’re playing does.

As is the case with every game, there was also a plethora of bad news. The Nets were nauseating in the rebound department as a team, collecting only 30 themselves and surrendering 40 to Portland, 17 of which came on the offensive glass. Those 17 offensive rebounds translated to 21 fast-break points, which is really just a hilarious number. As Sebastian was quick to point out on Twitter when I guffawed at the shocking nature of the Trail Blazers’ offensive rebounding during the game, Portland is at the top of the league in that department. My response, however, is that many of these boards were given away by the Nets rather than earned by the Trail Blazers. They weren’t fighting for the ball among Nets rebounders; they were scooping up the ball in a wide-open area because the Nets didn’t box out or bother to hustle to the ball — even if it was a foot away.

That’s not all, though. Sheesh. If my list of negatives for the game were that short, you’d think I was writing a Celtics recap or something. The Nets were abysmal from three-point range, going just 2-of-12 from that distance. The former Lakers in the backcourt combined to go 1-of-9 from deep and 8-of-24 overall from the field. Devin Harris … Wait. Was Devin Harris even in the arena?

Trumping all of these unfortunate stats or accusations of absence was the fact that this loss really did not need to happen. The Nets were up 55-46 about 30 seconds into the second half. By the 6:41 mark in the period, the score was 63-55 … in favor of the Trail Blazers before Sasha Vujacic ended the misery with a jump shot. That’s a 17-0 run. Well, dipping back into the team’s usual pool of plays (or, more accurately, pool of crap) didn’t help. Brook Lopez shot 8-of-11 from the field for 18 points in the first half, and he only took one shot in the first six minutes of the third quarter. Does it really make sense to go away from your best option coming off six quarters of raw domination? I didn’t think so.

From that point on, there was a palpable vibe that the Nets were going to lose. And when your gut feeling is that the Nets are going to lose, they usually lose. The microcosm of this feeling was Wesley Matthews’ layup to close the third quarter, which came as close to being a dagger as any third-quarter attempt can come. He stripped Harris naked with five seconds to go, raced down the floor, and laid it in. It sent all the momentum in Portland’s direction for the rest of the game.

The fourth quarter was largely a formality for the Trail Blazers, who sealed the deal by limiting the Nets to a measly 13 points in the final frame. Adding insult to injury was the painfully long ending to the game, after Avery Johnson instructed the Nets to begin intentionally fouling with 47 seconds to play. Thanks, Avery.

The Nets are not very good. At least they played defense at the beginning of the year. Now that the defense is out the window, they really have no redeeming qualities. Last year, they were much more lovable losers because they set the bar for the worst start to a season and came very close to breaking the mark for worst overall record. This year, it’s more of a nondescript inferiority. Not to throw fuel on the fire, but why would anyone want another two (or more) years of this by “rebuilding”? Alright, that is totally intended to throw fuel on the fire.

The Nets head to the Rose Garden tonight for their second game of a back to back as well as their second game in a series of three games over a span of four days. Here are a few keys to the game against the Trail Blazers:

• Make LaMarcus Aldridge a Perimeter Player: For most of his career, LaMarcus Aldridge has been short-changing himself of his full array of talent by refusing to work on the low block and get shots around the basket area. Instead, he elects mostly to work the high post, settling for relatively ineffective jumpers. Over the last few weeks, however, he has tried to shake that trend, working in the post with much more regularity. Accordingly, the Nets need to look to force him to stay away from the basket. If they can deny him a few times in the post, he will likely head back to his comfort zone and work the perimeter for the game. With Brandon Roy out, double-teaming Aldridge is that much less risky, so it’s a strategy the Nets might go to out of the gate.
• Go to Brook Lopez: While Brook Lopez’s offensive explosion against the Lakers last night was probably due in large part to wanting to get back at Avery Johnson for benching him in overtime against the Suns Wednesday, he showed that he can be the offensive leader of the Nets if he has the ball in his hands. Lopez will likely see many minutes matched up with Marcus Camby, an accomplished post defender, but Brook had no problem abusing one-on-one defense from either Andrew Bynum or Pau Gasol against the Lakers. The Camby Man shouldn’t be a major hindrance to his production.
• Pick Up the Pace: The Trail Blazers are coming off a game last night, so the Nets should look to pick up the pace to exploit their fatigue. Yes, the Nets also played last night, but Portland is an older team with players like Camby and Andre Miller, so the grind is likely to have more wear and tear on them. Expect Avery Johnson’s lungs to get a more significant workload than usual, screaming at Devin Harris and Jordan Farmar to get the ball up the floor.

By all accounts, it’s a done deal… or is it? Well, are you ready for this mind-blowing announcement? Nets fans are exhausted! It’s no secret how I feel about all of this, preferring to go young heading into Brooklyn, even writing an open letter to Billy King, the Nets GM. However, it seems all of my efforts and thoughts may be for naught as the seeming inevitability of a group of strangers in Nets jerseys will soon invade my thoughts on NAS.

Yet, I feel like I still need to go down fighting (the Queens, NY in me… STAND UP!) and give one last effort despite being beaten up over the last 11 rounds AKA the last couple of weeks. Read more…

Box Score - Forum Blue and Gold – Silver Screen and Roll

With more than half of the New Jersey Nets’ roster expected to be shipped out any day now, it’s going to be very difficult to objectively judge this team for the remainder of this road trip. For example, because of the Carmelo Anthony trade rumors, does anyone in Nets-land really care that I saw a couple of instances of positive play from Derrick Favors last night despite his overall ugly stat line (0 points, 0-6 shooting, 5 rebounds, 4 fouls in 20 minutes)? In the same vain, is anyone at this point really going to get up-in-arms about Devin Harris scoring 6 points and turning the ball over 7 times? Both of these guys are clearly not in the team’s plans, so what’s the point in me sitting here and dwelling too much on these players (and the six others who are rumored to be shipped out).

Fortunately, for the sake of the English language and Nets Are Scorching readers everywhere, someone who is not rumored to be going anywhere in the three-team megadeal expected to go down on Tuesday, had such a breakthrough game that for now, for at least one more day, I am left with something to legitimately break down in a recap. For the record, the final score last night’s game in Los Angeles was Lakers 100, Nets 88, but the final score is almost irrelevant. Sure, an upset would have been nice, but was undoubtedly a long shot given the wealth of talent on the Lakers and the lack of talent on the Nets. The Nets were able to hang around for the bulk of the game, even leading by two points after the first quarter, and cutting their deficit as close as two early in the fourth, but that performance was accomplished by a team that is not going to exist in a few days, so I honestly don’t care. What I really care about from last night was Brook Lopez, who had his best game of the season, and might have played one of his most perfect games of his career.

And what’s better, the final stat line is about as impressive as the way Lopez got there: 35 points on 13-19 shooting, and 9-11 from the free throw line. A block, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and ZERO turnovers. Sure, as has been the case all season for Lopez, you’d like to see better rebounding numbers, but even so, he looked more aggressive on the glass last night than he’s done in weeks. At the 7:12 mark in the first quarter, he scored two of his point after grabbing an offensive rebound and putting the ball back up with a pretty baby hook. Late in the second quarter, on a pair of free throws, Lopez grabbed the defensive board after emphatically boxing out Pau Gasol with his left arm, demonstrating sheer brute strength that the Center has not been showcasing this year, leading some fans (and myself to a degree) if the bout of mono last summer has really affected his season.

On the offensive end, Lopez attacked the basket without mercy. Early in the first, he dribbled and drove to the basket from blocks, sinking the basket with his left hand and getting fouled in the process – showing great touch around the rim. With a little more than 2 minutes to go in the quarter, he got the ball in the post, face-up and glided to the basket for a one-handed dunk. Early in the third quarter, with the Lakers making one of their many runs to try and put this game away, Lopez got the ball in the post again and with Pau Gasol guarding him, found a small seam to his right, spun, and dunked the ball with two hands, drawing the foul. And Lopez did the vast majority of his damage from either the paint or the post, only attempting two jumpers from beyond 15-feet (and sinking one of them – a beautiful 19-footer in the first half of the third, which made the Lakers defense stay honest on him when he got the ball from 15-feet out). He rarely held the ball too long (one instance in the third quarter led to an attempted steal by Derek Fisher, and leaving the Nets with three seconds on the shot clock – one of the only poor possessions by Brook all game).

Meanwhile, while Lopez was putting on the clinic, looking like the best player on the court for stretches (though Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol still say “what up”), the Lakers young Center, Andrew Bynum, was in constant foul trouble trying to guard Brook. Bynum finished 1-5 with 2 points in 22 minutes (and 5 fouls). For the second half, the duty of guarding Lopez was mainly relegated to smaller players, Gasol and Lamar Odom. Lopez finished 7-10 from the field.

But the most interesting part of this performance was the timing. While Lopez has not been mentioned in any trade talks, there was a flurry of subtle activity earlier this week that indicated that there might have been some heat between Brook and coach Avery Johnson (my concerns, echoing Ball Don’t Lie’s Kelly Dwyer’s, here). While it appears that the bulk of the Nets fan base (or those who choose to comment on blogs) seems to be “tough nuggets Brook. Who cares if Avery is being mean to you” I don’t think it can be ignored that Lopez’s best game of the season came immediately after he was caught on television dropping the “F” bomb in Avery’s direction while being benched during OT in Phoenix Wednesday night. Did Lopez respond to Avery’s motivational ploy or was he just so pissed off that he went out there and played meaner and more aggressively? I don’t care, but I loved the performance and if you add Anthony and some grizzled vets like Rip Hamilton and Chauncy Billups to a team that features a meaner, stronger Lopez, it’s going to shut up a lot of people who think Anthony is making a mistake choosing Jersey/Brooklyn over Duh Gahden and Amare’s time-bomb knees.

A few more thoughts after the break:

Read more…

The struggling Nets (10-28) continue their four game road trip out west against the incumbent champion (and red hot) Lakers (29-11). Here are some keys for tonight’s game.

Don’t Do Anything Stupid. Like Get Yourself Killed: Earlier this week, the Lakers took out the dejected Cavs 112-57. Putting aside LeBron’s karma tweets, can you imagine a team in this era by that many points? Sadly, the Nets, with their current starting five and dejected aura around them, have to make sure they compete from the word go, because the Lakers have demonstrated what they can do to an unprepared and unmotivated opponent.

Get Brook Back in the Flow of the Game: Much is being made about Brook Lopez’s reaction to getting benched in Phoenix on Wednesday. I understand the guy is struggling. No one wants him to be doing better than Nets fans. But Avery Johnson’s tough love may not be registering here, and the two need to find a way to kiss and make-up because with or without ‘Melo, this team (I think) still considers Lopez a building block, as he should be.

The Usual Stuff About Kobe: Kobe Bryant is still on the Lakers and though LA has a bunch of ways to beat you, he’s still got to be exhibit A for the Nets. Have Sasha Vujacic hound the crap out of Kobe on defense and see what happens.

Former Lakers Unite: If ever there was a game for a couple of Nets to stick it to their old team, this is the night. Jordan Farmar was always unhappy in Phil Jackson’s triangle offense, and Sasha has always been competing for Kobe’s alpha male love. Maybe tonight they can prove something.

By the way, we answered some questions for a couple of Lakers blogs in advance of tonight’s game. Check us out over at the Kamenentzky Brothers’ Land o Lakers blog at ESPN LA, and The No Look Pass.

Lost in the shuffle of the Carmelo Anthony drama – today’s story, national writers say ‘Melo still neeeds to be “sold” on a trade, while the trusty beat writers think a deal goes down early next week – was the curious benching of Brook Lopez on Wednesday night in Phoenix and his subsequent reaction. There’s a video circulating the Interwebs showing Lopez screaming some naughty words towards Avery Johnson after the benching, which came in overtime after Lopez demonstrated poor shot selection, a running theme for Lopez this year (the poor shots, not the benching). Rather than link to the video, I’d rather direct you towards some worthwhile waxed poetic from Ball Don’t Lie’s Kelly Dwyer on the topic:

Because the current approach isn’t working. It’s making Lopez worse, and Johnson is a fool if he thinks repeated use of the same approach, despite failure each and every time out, is the smart way to go here. The Nets are trying their hardest to make Lopez the second-best player on a team featuring Carmelo Anthony, and while that’s not going to be a championship core at its best, it’s going to be far worse if Johnson keeps handling Lopez this way. Because the third-year center has taken a clear step backward, and it can’t be coincidental that Johnson is talking smack on- and off-record about the guy every damn day.

The smack talk in question can be found in the form of this dig from Avery last week in practice.

Obviously, I’ve made my issues with Avery Johnson well-known. I also accept and understand that Mikhail Prokhorov reportedly loves him and he’s a “proven winner,” at least based on his record leading an ultra-talented Dallas team, so he’s going nowhere.

But we’re also at a point that a trend has developed with Avery. There were of course the reports when he was first hired that there may have been some “issues” with Devin Harris, who he coached with Dallas, that needed to be resolved. Then there’s been the mysterious exile of Troy Murphy’s, who’s biggest flaw so far seems to be he got injured before the team’s global road trip in the preseason. Then of course was the Terrence Williams saga. Say what you will about TWill and his maturity, but his one-week “demotion” to the D-League just came across as petty, especially after he was traded soon after to Houston.

The thing is, TWill’s been trade, Murphy will undoubtedly be traded, and my guess is Harris will too. The strife with Brook Lopez is different and more alarming because by almost all accounts, Lopez isn’t going anywhere and in fact, the hope seems to be that maybe he’ll realize his potential once proven go-to scorer’s like Anthony and Rip Hamilton are on this team. It’s one thing for Avery to alienate players who are “not in his plans” but if he’s doing with guys he allegedly wants to move forward with, is this really how he plans on motivating people and at one point does this team of superstars that Prokhorov wants to bring in tune out the Little General and force him back to the analyst booth at ESPN?