Nets Are Scorching

According to reports this morning, the New Jersey Nets have waived backup forward and Trenton Hassell replacement Quinton Ross. Ross had been injured for a fair portion of the year, and wasn’t playing much when he was healthy. Marc Stein reports on Twitter that the Nets will sign former Hawk Mario West to fill Ross’s shoes.

This isn’t much of an upgrade, and late in the season these games aren’t wholly important. That being said, West is a decent enough player to fill Ross’s role. He has a career 9.4 PER in limited time, and apparently played pretty good defense on Tony Parker once. Also, he can also do this:

Seems decent enough for a guy expected to replace Quinton Ross. I doubt many fans will be upset with this move, unless there’s a Quinton Ross Fan Club I don’t know about.

Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images

It’s not often that a team gets a chance to play a meaningful game late in a season after being mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. Maybe you might play spoiler to a hated conference contender or win a great “moral victory,” but usually the players on those teams are waiting to crack open a beer for a matinee baseball game or hit the links for a morning of golf.

The New Jersey Nets, however, were given an opportunity to buck that trend a month ago, when ESPN gave its Pistons-Pacers coverage the hook in favor of a standoff between the two trade-acquisition dandies, Carmelo Anthony and Deron Williams, and their less important teams. So what’s the significance?

Last night’s game was, in no simpler terms, an audition for the Nets. I’ve ranted before about the Nets’ astounding obscurity, suggesting that completing a trade for Anthony was bigger than basketball — it would be the first step to getting this Nets franchise back on the map — so when the team was rewarded with its first opportunity to play on national television in more than two years, it was imperative that the Nets took advantage of that exposure to prove that they are no joke, that they can compete with teams from the league’s better half.

Well, the Nets botched that tryout. They didn’t go down in flames William Hung style, but they certainly didn’t impress the people they needed to move. Basically, they fizzled with the mediocrity of the year-in-year-out Charlotte Bobcats. Those who already knew about the Nets came away saying, “That was a good try.” The doubters? They’re still convinced the Nets suck.

When the Nets jumped out to an early lead, they definitely put some people on notice. They lay the groundwork by jumping out to a double-digit lead on the media-darling Knicks, who are under more intense scrutiny than virtually any team not located in Los Angeles. Realistically, though, this is probably a close recreation of what Nets-ignorant viewers were thinking:

“Who’s this bushy-haired fellow tearing the Knicks a new one?”

“Why doesn’t Anthony Morrow ever miss a shot?”

“This Travis Outlaw guy must be making less than $1 million this season because he’s terrible. He’s definitely not getting paid $35 million over the next five seasons — that would be ridiculous!”

Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration. But it’s not as if I’m trying to intimate that fans who aren’t familiar with the Nets are dumb. The media coverage of the Nets is so sparse on a national level that it would be unrealistic to expect that the casual fan familiarize himself with Nets basketball.

When the Nets had torched the Knicks for 68 first-half points, things were looking up. But what those new viewers were about to experience was something Nets enthusiasts are all too aware of: the textbook New Jersey second-half meltdown. Some might attribute it to resilience on the part of the Knicks, but this goes well with the Nets’ obscurity: people realize they’re bad, but they don’t see just how bad they really are.

The manner in which the Nets systematically handed their lead away to the Knicks was very depressing and didn’t leave a fine taste in the mouths of NBA fans. At one point, Anthony Carter assisted on three straight baskets to Shelden Williams in what was one of the most pathetic stretches of defense in league history. That certainly wouldn’t have made me take interest in the Nets moving forward.

Still, with the lead gone, Williams made things interesting down the stretch by putting the team on his back — he was in pure superstar mode. In a span of under three minutes, Deron did the following: (1) made two free throws; (2) made a layup, got fouled, and hit the free throw; (2) made a midrange jumper; and (4) made a another layup, got fouled again, and hit the free throw to put the Nets up three at the end of that series.

Things then came back down to Earth, and the Knicks won the game after Williams bricked a wide-open 12-foot jumper that would have tied the game.

The Nets failed.

It doesn’t matter that the game was close. It doesn’t matter that they led by a lot in the first half. It doesn’t matter that Deron Williams, Brook Lopez, and Anthony Morrow all played spectacular basketball. No one’s going to remember anything except the condemning result. The proverbial ‘L’ on the forehead, if you will.

What could have been a hypersensationalized win over a crosstown rival turned out to be nothing but an assumed loss. What could have put the league on notice ended in shame and regret.

Now the season really is over for the Nets. It’s time to start building for next year. All they can do is hope it won’t be another two years before they get to showcase themselves again to more than their NBA-worst viewership.

Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images

Box Score – KnickerBlogger – Posting and Toasting

The Nets played a great offensive game, led by as many as 16 but in the end could not score enough to beat the Knicks in a high-paced, fun game to watch at Madison Square Garden. Deron Williams seemed to show no signs of the wrist injury and he did everything except make the game-tying shot in the final seconds. While the Nets played well enough to win, like countless other games this season, they fell a few points short at the end.

Everything about this team is different with Deron Williams in the lineup. It was evident from the opening tip and it was the primary reason why the Nets scored a season-high 36 points in the first quarter. Sure, Brook Lopez was great, with 16 points on 6-7 shooting in the first, but it was all predicated off of D-Will’s creativity with the ball. He gets everyone open shots and had 5 assists in the opening stanza. The Nets had been awful in first quarters as of late, but on the heels of 58.3 percent shooting from the field, they had a 6-point lead after the first 12 minutes.

As a Nets fan and someone who can’t stand everything about the Knicks right now, I was hoping there would be a few moments last night where the Nets play would force the Knicks fans to turn into boo birds. Well we heard exactly that early in the second quarter after the Nets extended their lead to 10 on a sweet D-Will floater and nice put back from Johan Petro. Following that the Nets continued their run and after Sasha Vujacic buried a three and Farmar had a fast break and-1, they were all of a sudden up by 16.

I’ve seen a decent amount of the Knicks over the last few weeks but haven’t watched an entire game like I did last night. Let me just say this: All of their critics are 100% correct, they play no defense whatsoever and their rebounding is even worse than their defensive effort. With Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony there is no denying that New York can score, but the Nets got whatever they wanted on offense and it was just a matter of knocking shots down. And like I mentioned the Knicks defensive rebounding is so poor it’s pathetic. The Nets got countless tip-ins that weren’t even contested. If I were a Knicks fan I’d be disgusted watching this team with their lack of defensive execution every night.

The first half was a thing of beauty for the Nets. Brook led the way with 22, D-Will controlled the pace and the Nets’ Anthony (Morrow, of course) was 5-6 from the field and scored 14 points. For a team that has struggled scoring lately it was a little bit of a surprise to see the Nets score a season-high 68 POINTS in the first half, but it’s all relative when you’re playing the Knicks defense. Either way give the Nets credit because even though they got a ton of open shots and easy looks, they still needed to knock them down, which they did in the first 24 minutes. The Nets defense wasn’t great either as the Knicks scored 58 points of their own, but I was satisfied with a 10-point lead for the visitors at halftime at MSG.

As good as the Nets first half was, the Knicks were able to chop 6 points off the Nets 16 points lead in the final few minutes of the second quarter, and they continued that run early in the second half. If it wasn’t for an Anthony Morrow three the game would be tied at 68 but even still, just 2:31 into the third quarter the Knicks had cut the lead to three and it suddenly seemed like the game was sliding in their favor. In the first few possessions of the third period, the Nets clearly tried to feature Brook Lopez. While that is a fine strategy by Avery Johnson because of the first half he had, I would still rather have the offense run through Williams and use he and Brook in the pick-and-roll. 

One of the biggest sequences in the game occurred about halfway through the third quarter when the Nets buried three 3-pointers on successive possessions to build the lead back up to 10. D-Will started and ended the barrage with two from near the top of the key and Morrow had the other one in between from the right wing. His shooting was outstanding all night as he finished with an impressive 30 points on 10-15 shooting. Morrow is another guy whose game is dramatically lifted with Williams in the lineup. It’s not that complicated: D-Will penetrates and causes the defense to collapse and shooters like Morrow can get more clean looks from the perimeter. That’s a clear recipe for winning basketball.

With about 4 minutes left in the third the Nets two main offensive threats, Williams and Lopez, each went out with four fouls. After two Anthony Morrow free throws pushed the lead up to 8, the next three and a half minutes became critical to make sure the Nets could maintain their lead with D-Will and Brook on the bench. But not surprisingly with the Nets two best players on the bench, Carmelo went off and continued his outstanding third quarter play. Travis Outlaw made an effort to defend him and say what you want about ‘Melo, but when he’s on a roll scoring the ball, no one in this league can stop him. He finished with 20 points in the quarter, the Nets offense looked stagnant and they held just a 92-91 lead at the end of three periods.

The first few minutes of the fourth quarter saw the game go back and forth with each team trading one-point leads. And then the dynamic duo that is Shelden Williams and Anthony Carter took over. Yes you read that right. Williams got a leak out transition layup and two half-court buckets to give the Knicks a five point lead with 6:20 to go. Lopez played a very solid game but his defensive softness was something I did not like to see. I realize he was in foul trouble in the fourth quarter but he has to be more physical with a guy that has the talent of Shelden Williams.

But after some big buckets from D-Will, the Nets fought back to tie the game at 107 and like many NBA games, this one came down to making the winning plays in the final four minutes. After some great plays by Williams and three free throws by Chauncey Billups, the game was tied at 114 with 2 minutes to go. But the Nets decided to only take jump shots, Travis Outlaw had a big traveling violation in transition and Anthony promptly buried a mid-range jumper to give the Knicks a two-point lead. 

The Nets ran a nice set out of the timeout to get Brook a shot off a pick-and-roll but after he missed the shot and lost his shoe, he felt it would be more important to put his shoe back on than to play out the possession with the ball still being tipped around. So what happened? The ball got batted right towards him but since his head was down, it went off his back and went out of bounds. You literally see it all when you’re a Nets fan.

But even with all of that after Carmelo missed a wide open mid-range jumper the Nets had a chance to tie or win the game with 8 seconds left. Deron got a great look from about 16 feet but he couldn’t knock it down and the Nets lost 120-116 in what was an exciting game. In terms of the stars, Anthony, Stoudemire and Billups combined for an impressive 93 points and although the Nets got very strong games out of D-Will, Lopez and Morrow, 116 points ended up not being enough to get it done.

There were some good signs in this game to give Nets fans promise for next season but they need to start putting together more offensive and defensive efforts in the same game. So the team is on yet another four-game losing streak and will head down the Jersey Turnpike to Philly on Friday.

The NYTime’s George Vescey provides a nice retrospective on the evolving Knicks/Nets rivalry, which was punctuated last night on a game on national television (we’ll ignore the final score for now):

Both the Knicks and the Nets are mutants — teams that keep evolving, on their way to someplace else. Eventually the dust and disorder at the Garden will be replaced by a vastly more expensive new version of the arena, while the Nets continue their loopy hegira from the Meadowlands to Newark and onward to Brooklyn, three-card monte with players. Now you see them, now you don’t.

Personally, I hope this rivalry becomes as brutal and vicious as Dodgers/Giants in the 1950s, Rangers/Islanders in the 1980s and 1990s, and Mets/Yankees today. I think it would be great for both organizations and the NBA in general. The key is both teams have to be good  - and I think they will be. Don’t get me wrong, I’m going to knock the Knicks every chance I get – they have two of the best scorers in the NBA and are barely a .500 team right now and their fan base is acting like everything has been set right after eeking out two wins the past week at “Duh Mecca.” Meanwhile, with Deron Williams now in tow, I expect the Nets will go through yet another dramatic transformation this summer. I wouldn’t be surprised to see another “all-star” on this roster and a brand new supporting cast.

It’s the third meeting between the two crosstown “rivals” tonight as the Nets head to MSG to take on the Knicks. The Nets have now lost 7 of their last 8, with their only win being against the worst team in the league, the Cleveland Cavaliers. Tonight will be the first meeting between the two teams since their respective trades and a little more than two hours before the game, it’s still not crystal clear whether D-Will is going to give it a go tonight. Whether he plays or not the Nets need to find a way to score, and will need to slow down the Knicks, in order to win tonight.

Here are a few things to keep an eye on at the Garden:

Scoring. The Nets haven’t done much of this lately. Obviously the team’s dip on offense coincided with the loss of Deron Williams but the Nets haven’t scored 100 points since March 11 and have scored under 90 in each of their last three games (all losses). It is no secret that the Knicks play relatively no defense, so if the Nets can’t get some punch on offense tonight and at least fill it up to some extent, it will be quite disappointing. 

First Quarter. In the Nets last three games, they have trailed by an average of 11.0 points after the first quarter. That is not exactly a recipe to win in the NBA. The Knicks are a team that has struggled of late (aside from their win over Orlando on Monday) so getting out to a fast start will be critical if the Nets are going to get a W. Because they don’t really play any defense, the Knicks are a much better team when they get an early lead, so it will be critical for the Nets to try and prevent that from happening.

Send a Message. The Nets are not going to make the playoffs and their season is going to end in nine games. But tonight’s game is one of the only big ones left on the schedule. It’s against the Knicks, it’s on national TV (ESPN) and it’s the first meeting against the team that got Carmelo Anthony instead of the Nets. A lot will depend on if D-Will can play, but if he does it would be a very encouraging sign (especially for next season) if the Nets can help to continue the Knicks downturn and win this game.

Olympic Sprinter Luis Scola racing ahead of the defense again.

Box Score – Red94 – The Dream Shake

When I was growing up, like most kids, I played town sports. Little League baseball, town basketball, even soccer. I played all three for much of my youth, and when you play low-level sports, there’s one constant: at least once, you’re going to get your ass kicked. At some point, you’ll run into some team that’s bigger, faster, stronger, and generally better than you, and you’ll get beat like 41-2. It happens. However, where I grew up baseball & soccer had these little tweaks to make things slightly less embarrassing: the mercy rule.

Everyone knows the mercy rule. If you were up by 12 or more runs, or 6 or more goals, they’d call the game. No need to embarrass the opponent any more, right? They’ve gotten their loss, you’ve gotten your win. Move on, there are bigger things to worry about. Basketball lacked this rule, unfortunately – the clock dictated that every second of every quarter had to be played. There were rules for this sort of thing, and the rule states you play until the final buzzer sounds. This made the “fans” in the crowd, like my parents, tune out of the riots and start doing other things. This especially stunk if my team was losing – not only is my team down 56-3 but I can’t even attract the attention of my parents.

On a related note, the Nets played last night.

Not a lot of people were at the Rock to watch this game. But why would they be? The Nets are missing their star player and boast two starters who played as backups on a championship team a year ago. The Rockets aren’t flashy or interesting, although they’re well constructed and play tough defense. They don’t have any pull, though. There’s no big Nets-Rockets rivalry. The Rockets don’t have any flashy stars. No one cares that Courtney Lee is in town. It’s the definition of a meaningless NBA regular season game.

Meaningless or not, it still stung to watch. Before it got ugly, the Nets were actually ahead at one point. It was 19-17 in the middle of the first quarter, and the Nets looked like a real team. Anthony Morrow was hitting shots, Kris Humphries was snaring boards, Brook Lopez… well, Brook wasn’t playing well, he’d get there in the second quarter. But, naturally, any idea that the Nets would hang around with an even semi-interested team was a folly. After a 14-0 Rockets run and a couple more buckets, the Nets were in a 13-point hole at the end of the first. Kyle Lowry had 14 points, including three threes, and three assists in that quarter. Without a Lopez block on a fast break, it would have been 16.

Once the first quarter ended, I might as well have turned off the television set. I knew what was going to happen. The Nets were going to make a couple of shots here and there, maybe even get the lead under ten points (they never did). But this was an undermanned team, facing a 13-point deficit with 36 minutes remaining against a team that was at least at semi-full strength. I could not fathom a single outcome in which the star-struck Nets would win this game. Bad teams playing better teams don’t come back from deficits, even with deficits occurring so early in the game. It was the definition of hopeless. It was mercy-rule basketball.

Sure, the Nets gave it a good run. They started running through Brook Lopez every play on offense, finding good results. The guy had 18 efficient points in the first half, and even though Chuck Hayes was giving him some trouble Lopez found advantages down low and basically just shot over him. But Lopez made eight field goals in that first half, and the rest of the Nets combined to make just 11.

(The Nets also attempted just 5 free throws in the first half. All by Brook. He made just two.)

Sure, Jordan Farmar knocked down a few threes. Sure, Brandan Wright didn’t look awful again. But there’s nothing to take from this game other than “wow, without Deron Williams, the Nets don’t stand a chance.”The laundry list of things they did wrong could fill a webspace. Leaving guys like Jordan Hill under the basket for open dunks. Not running back in transition. Terrible, terrible, terrible perimeter defense. Making silly turnovers. Missing midrange jumpers that they shouldn’t be taking anyway. Seriously, I wonder if anyone ever taught Brook that a 7-footer can get an 18-footer at any point in the shot clock. Considering how rarely he passes them up, the likely answer is “no.” There are minute things to parse – Johan Petro took a bunch of bad shots again, Travis Outlaw had another mistake-full game, Kris Humphries & Anthony Morrow struggled to produce, and Ben Uzoh looked good – but it’s the same old story, just packaged with a different team on the label.

Truthfully, by the end of this game I was my parents – tuning out as I watched my favorite team crash & burn, reminding myself there are more important things in life to feel better. The Nets were down 21, and the Heat-Cavaliers were in the middle of a brawl that was easily the story of the night. As an analyst, I felt like a cheater, as a fan, I felt justified.

Man, I hope Deron’s available tonight.

Nets minority owner Jay-Z is facing a bit of scrutiny after being caught congratulating University of Kentucky players in the locker room following their NCAA Tournament victory at the Prudential Center last week:

The hip-hop mogul’s visit was documented in photos and video showing him congratulating players in the Kentucky locker room, which happened to have been occupied by two potential lottery picks — Brandon Knight and Terrance Jones. As noted here, this offense would seem to be comparable to Celtics GM Danny Ainge sitting with Kevin Durant’s mother during the 2007 Big 12 tournament. Ainge was fined $30,000, a slap on the wrist in exchange for the opportunity to schmooze a top prospect’s mom. But given that standard, Jay-Z should be docked $30K for each college player who was in the locker room.

Of course the problem here is Jay-Z is connected to Kentucky coach John Calipari through the marketing company Worldwide Wes (the same company which was supposed to help Jay-Z lure LeBron, ‘Melo, etc to the Nets). The way I see it, after his three years in New Jersey, I think anyone from the Nets organization caught fraternizing with Calipari should be shot out of a canon, but then again, I’m just bitter about Calipari.

In their final game before the nationally televised throwdown with the New York Knicks on Wednesday, the Nets take on the Houston Rockets at the Prudential Center on Tuesday evening.

Here are a few keys to the game:

Chuck Hayes, Diminutive Post Giant: Chuck Hayes has established himself as one of the league’s finest post defenders in the last couple seasons despite his short stature for the center position. In his last two games, Brook Lopez has looked like utter crap, averaging 8 points and 1 rebound in those two contests. This doesn’t bode well for the Nets center. Expect Lopez to drift on the perimeter more than usual to avoid the immovable object that is Hayes.

One More Game (Likely) Without Deron: Hold on, Nets fans. Deron Williams is almost back. The reports say he’ll possibly play in Wednesday’s game, and if he’s given the choice, he’ll surely step up to the challenge. In the meantime, the Nets will have to deal with Jordan Farmar starting at point guard again. He hasn’t been terrible since Deron went down, but he hasn’t been Deron either. Facing a team that’s smelling the blood in the playoff-race water, the Nets should expect increased intensity from the Rockets, and they will have to match in order to have a chance at winning.

Luis Scola, What Could Have Been: If you’ll recall, the Nets were a serious suitor for Luis Scola’s services in the offseason, and reports indicated they came close to nabbing him before the Rockets matched the Nets’ offer sheet for Scola’s restricted free agency — that was one of many great decisions on Daryl Morey’s long list. He’s having a career year with 18.5 points and 8.1 rebounds, and you wonder where the Nets would be if they’d ended up with him this past summer. Nevertheless, Humphries’ play beyond expectations has helped to ease the pain on missing out on Scola.

For more on the Houston Rockets, check out their TrueHoop blog, Red94.