Nets Are Scorching

This is the Outlaw the Nets paid for. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Box Score – Roundball Mining Company – Denver Stiffs

It’ll be hard to top this one.

The Nuggets made it interesting a few times in the second half, and Carmelo Anthony certainly lit up the Prudential Center. But at the end of the day, the Nets walked away with a well-deserved, hard-fought, dominating victory over a team that was expected to beat up on them.

Remember the team we talked about against Indiana? The exciting, dynamic offensive team with the potential to explode at any given moment? That ended up being… Indiana?

Last night, it was New Jersey. Better late than never.

The signs were there. I pointed some of them out in the pregame open thread. The Nets were .500 (now above) at home, Denver was 8-13 (now 14) on the road. Denver’s biggest defensive weaknesses mirrored New Jersey’s biggest offensive strengths. New Jersey had the defensive pieces necessary to neutralize Denver’s biggest offensive weaknesses. ‘Melo was likely to isolate on numerous plays, which looks pretty and reinforces your individual greatness but usually ends poorly for the team in the long run. A little of it was luck, but most of it was expected execution. All of it led to an upset victory.

Even as the Nuggets cut an 18-point lead to just five early in the fourth quarter, the Nets quickly neutralized every single attempt to get it closer. It was Newtonian: every Nuggets action was met with an equal and opposite Nets reaction. Chauncey Billups hits a 3, Ben Uzoh hits one right back. Nene gets a dunk, Harris slices through the interior & returns with a layup. J.R. Smith hits a stepback jumper, Favors draws a Smith foul and knocks down both free throws.

Carmelo Anthony made his Newark debut – albeit for the opposing team – and if fans came to see a show, they certainly got one. ‘Melo lit up the arena for 37 points on a beautiful 12-22 shooting night. Running on all cylinders, most of Melo’s shots were midrange jumpers in isolation, although he did post up when smaller defenders like Anthony Morrow were on him & was also found for a couple of spot-up threes. But at the end of the day, basketball isn’t a one-on-one game, it’s five-on-five, and the Nuggets just didn’t know how to handle New Jersey when the Nets had the ball.

Besides, who needs ‘Melo when you have Morrlaw?

I know you remember him. Tranthony Morrlaw, the two-headed creature that’s half good, half bad, and you can never quite guess which half. Well, that guy’s finally figured it out. Both halves of Morrlaw played excellent basketball, combining for 39 points on 14-20 shooting, 7-11 from the field, 7 rebounds, and zero turnovers. Individually, Outlaw finished with 21 points, and Morrow didn’t miss a shot – 6-6 from the field, including four threes. Huge game from Morrlaw. He completely neutralized ‘Melo.

Morrlaw was one star(s) tonight, but there were at least two others. Firstly, Brook Lopez cannot go unnoticed. His touch was as sweet as ever from within ten feet – hitting hook shots, layups, dunks, and even connecting on a few of those midrange spot-up jumpers he loves so much. He finished the night with 27 points, out-dueling Nene and – get this – even out-rebounding him!

Okay, Nene only had three rebounds and Lopez had four. But still!

The other star was oft-maligned point guard, Devin Harris. Fresh off setting his career high with sixteen assists on Saturday, Devin makes sure that record doesn’t last too long and bested it with eighteen last night. Two of those assists were back-to-back alley-oops in transition to Humphries (a play that looked positively Baron-to-Blake-Griffinesque) and Lopez. They were the single most exciting back-to-back possessions the Nets have had all year, and Devin Harris was the catalyst. Given how he’s been distributing these past few games, I’m backing off my original comments that the Nets and Harris are destined to split.

Let’s look back at the keys of this game:

1) Attack with pick & rolls, cuts, & spot-ups. Of the 99 plays by the Nets, a whopping 43 were either pick & roll ballhandlers, roll men, or spot-up shooters (23 plays were of the spot-up variety, more than any other play type). The ballhandlers weren’t great, but the roll men & spot-up shooters combined for 17-31 shooting, including 6-10 from three and an and-1. The Nets also got eight easy points off cuts. That’s 49 efficient points right there.

One place that surprised me was in transition: despite Denver having the best transition defense in the NBA, the Nets shot a blistering 7-9 in transition, including one three and an and-1.

2) Defend strong in the post, avoid fouls, and close out on spot-up shooters. The Nets were effective in the post, but didn’t do so well on spot-up shooters – allowing 8-12 shooting (mostly Carmelo, J.R. Smith, and Billups), with three 3′s.

3) Force the Nuggets into isolation. This was the difference-maker. The Nuggets unsurprisingly used 24 possessions in isolation last night (14 by Carmelo Anthony), shot 5-17 with zero threes, and turned the ball over four times for a miserable 0.63 points per possession.

When 25% of your offensive sets are of the “let’s be predictable and let this guy show off for a while” variety, it’s no surprise that you end up losing.

One more thing this game taught us: it pays to draw fouls. In the final quarter, the Nets put the Nuggets in the bonus with 6:35 remaining. At this point, the Nuggets had cut the lead to five (98-93). The Nets scored the next six points on free throws to make the game 104-93, and the lead never went under ten points again.

At the end of the night, the Nets were just the better team. No question. As a Nets observer, you don’t get to say that often, especially against an above-.500 star-led Western Conference team.

More thoughts after the jump.

My favorite picture of the night. I'm a random humor guy. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

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It was only customary that reporters covering last night’s Nets/Nuggets game would ask Carmelo Anthony what was up during the trade negotiations – did he openly reject meeting with Mikhail Prokhorov or signing an extension with the Nets? Anthony clears the air on one of those questions, but remains non-committed on the other, more critical question:

“I would have took that meeting,” Anthony said after he scored 37 points in the Nets’ 115-99 victory over the Nuggets in Newark. “That meeting was going to take place. I can agree to that. As far as anything else, I can’t really speak of that.”

Anthony also addressed all the talk of him not wanting to sign with the Nets.

“I really don’t know where it came from, as far as if I was to come here, the extension wasn’t going to get signed,” he said.

Anthony can’t legally say certain things, but this idea that he wouldn’t sign with the Nets certainly have enough of a fever pitch behind it that even if it didn’t come from him directly, it likely came from one of his handlers.

The thing is, as satisfying as last night’s win was, the inevitable ‘Melo talk that would be brought up again was equally as frustrating. Since the Prokhorov press conference, this whole thing has truly felt “done” despite people thinking it’s a negotiating ploy. It’s been satisfying as a fan to watch a group of players and know these are your players, for better or worse. I’m hoping last night was just an inevitable blip in the road.