3 Shades of Blue – Straight Outta Vancouver

At the risk of overstating things, last night’s 107-101 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies could be one of those games that will really stand out at season’s ends if the Nets fail to get to 10 wins and avoid infamy. Not so much because this looked like much of a win on paper for the Nets, especially the way they played in the first half when they were down 67-51 at halftime. But because Memphis all but giftwrapped an opportunity for the Nets to steal win #8 by playing about as bad as an NBA team could play in the second half.

After looking unstoppable in the first half, the Grizzlies laid an egg in the third, shooting 29 percent and earning hearty boos from the Memphis faithful. But that’s where the “what ifs” come to play. The Nets pulled as close as two points when Devin Harris hit a step back 17-footer with about 11 seconds left in the third. But the Nets had the first of their many breakdowns when they fouled Marcus Williams with just a bit too much time left on the clock, allowing Sam Young enough time to get a clean look at the rim to swing the momentum back towards Memphis.

In the fourth, the Grizzlies weren’t nearly as bad, and the Nets weren’t nearly as good, but New Jersey still had their chances. With Yi Jianlian out with a knee injury and Josh Boone seemingly dinged up in a play in the third, the Nets went with a small lineup for a few minutes and settled for too many perimeter shots. And when they still managed to grab a few breaks, like when Kris Humphries intercepted a bad pass from Williams under the rim with about 7 minutes left and the Nets trailing by four, Hump rushed the putback and missed – another opportunity gone.

But the biggest “what if” was regarding the offensive play of the Nets frontcourt – namely Brook Lopez and Kris Humphries. Lopez looked out of it early, and was getting played tough by Marc Gasol (and had the bloody scratches to prove it – in job refs). But he mostly a non-factor from the field finishing 3-10, though he was fairly effective in the give-and-go fame with Devin Harris and Courtney Lee, tallying up 6 assists.

And with a lot of Nets fans scratching their heads as to why Boone got the call over Hump at the starting four, Humphries did very little, if anything to distinguish himself offensively. In addition to shooting 1-7, he just looked tentative out there, getting the ball 16-18 feet away from the basket and knowing he shouldn’t be shooting those shots, but not making a strong enough move to the hoop to either to a higher percentage shot or draw a foul. The saving grace for Hump came on the defensive end, where he blocked three shots and drew an offensive foul when Sam Young pushed Hump away while taking what looked to be, an easy lay-up with 6:37 left in the fourth and the Grizzlies hanging on to a four point lead. But again, the Nets were never able to take the next step. Terrence Williams had a layup attempt blocked by Young and a DeMarre Carroll layup later put the Grizzlies back up by 6.

Final thoughts after the jump:

• Is Courtney Lee from another planet right now, or what? With 30 points on 13-20 shooting, I guess my biggest complaint was he shot too many threes (2-6). But he looks like he’s finally starting to put his offensive game together, and he’s now starting to resemble that high ceiling two-guard everyone was praising after last year’s NBA Finals. While I realize this is not a popular thing to say this season, but some credit has to be given to Kiki Vandeweghe, who clearly believed in Lee and wanted to give him as many chances as possible to succeed. Some fans were saying earlier this season that Chris Douglas-Roberts or Terrence Williams should have received the chances Lee did, but Kiki obviously saw something in Lee that he didn’t initially with the other two (and still doesn’t with CDR), and it’s paying off for the Nets. When Lee is shooting the way he has been lately, combined with Devin Harris playing better and Brook Lopez playing like Brook Lopez, the Nets no longer resemble the worst team in basketball. I know that’s not that big of a deal, but baby steps people.
• Speaking of CDR, if he’s going to mope and groan about playing time, he should do simple things better like box out. When DeMarre Carroll swooped in out of nowhere to grab an offensive board and a putback to put the Grizzlies up by 6 in the fourth quarter, that was totally CDR’s responsibility to put a body on Carroll, but he seemed more concerned with trying to streak down the court to get into the offense quickly. He did make a nice play in the first half, when he broke up a sure alley-oop headed towards Marc Gasol.
• After his second strong offensive game in a row, I officially apologize to Devin Harris for speculating that he may be dealing with another wrist injury.
• I’ll probably do a statistical post to back myself up in the near future, but I’m convinced that Terrence Williams is the best rebounder on this team right now.
• I don’t know what it is, but I just hate small-ball and it seems like Kiki loves it. I thought it was just a Lawrence Frank thing, but it’s not. With a minute left in the first, Kiki went with a small lineup with Jarvis Hayes at the four and Hump in the middle, and the Grizzlies proceeded to grab 3 offensive boards in that 6o second stretch.
• After attempting 23 three-pointers last night, I think the Nets needed to be reminded that that’s not really a part of their game, their performance against the Knicks on Saturday be damned.
• If Kiki is going to give Josh Boone the nod in Yi’s absence, does Trenton Hassell still have to keep starting? Or better yet, why does he have to start the second half with the rest of the starters?

• Courtney Lee had another off-the-charts game for the Nets, scoring 30 points on 13-20 shooting. He also grabbed 5 rebounds and 2 steals. The way he’s played lately, the hype surrounding this kid entering the season is finally starting to make sense.
• Devin Harris was right behind Lee, finishing with 28 points, 5 assists and a blocked shot.
• Tough night for Brook Lopez, who was out of sync early and never got it going, scoring 10 points on 3-10 shooting, though he did add 7 rebounds and surprisingly 6 assists, including a behind the back pass to Harris in the first that led to a three-pointer.
• Little bit of everything tonight for Terrence Williams, finishing with 14 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists.
• Nice effort for emergency starter Josh Boone tonight, finishing with 6 points and 9 rebounds.
• The Memphis offense was led by Mike Conley, who was unconciously hot in the first half, and finished with 21 points on 9-18 shooting. Rudy Gay also scored 21 points, and grabbed 10 rebounds.
• Memphis scored 67 points in the first half, but only shot 29 percent in the third quarter which allowed the Nets to pull back into the game where they were down double-digits for a majority of the first half.
• Kris Humphries was brutal on offense, finishing 1-7 and 2 points, but he made a number of great defensive plays in the second half, and collected 3 blocks.

The last time these two teams played, the Nets were able to jump out to a big time early lead only to fall apart in the second half.  I think the Nets have gotten better/smarter when it comes to playing a full 48 minutes, so that means we should be getting a very interesting game.

Devin Harris vs. Mike Conley

Devin is coming off of another great game, and that is starting to happen more often than not, which is comforting to see.  Meanwhile on the other end, Mike Conley is considered by a good amount of people as one of the worst starting PGs in the league.  Here is what 3 Shades Of Blue has to say of him:

Mike Conley has picked up his game since the All-Star break and is starting to look more and more comfortable running the point but Memphis fans have seen similar stretches from Conley before only to watch him revert to the tentative PG who panicked at open shots.

Advantage:  Devin Harris

Courtney Lee vs. O.J. Mayo

When Lee went down with the ankle injury a few games ago, I was really worried because it looked like his shot was finally coming around and to see him go down with an ankle (an injury that really hurts jump shooters), all his work to get back could have gone down the drain.  However, Lee came back Saturday night like nothing ever happened.  He was sticking his shots all night.

Advantage:  Push

Trenton Hassell vs. Rudy Gay

Yes, Trenton Hassell is still starting.  This could be 1 of 2 reasons.  The first is that Hayes is still being bothered by injury a bit.  The second is that the Nets’ coaching staff believes Hayes is more of an effective shooter when he comes off the bench.  Either way, Hassell has been doing a decent enough job, but the fact that he is starting really tells you about the lack of depth the Nets have.

Advantage:  Rudy Gay

Kris Humphries vs. Zach Randolph

Humphries came to New Jersey like a bat out of hell.  He came in and was hitting shots, grabbing rebounds, and doing just about everything you could ask of him (he even set his career high in points twice).  He fell off, and you can blame Yi and Kiki from taking minutes away from him, but when it comes down to it, he hasn’t been hitting his shots.  With all that being said, Humphries is the perfect match-up for a guy like Randolph. He isn’t going to let Zach Randolph push him around on the block or on the offensive board.

Advantage:  Zach Randolph

Brook Lopez vs. Marc Gasol

Brook Lopez had his way with Marc Gasol the last time these two played, scoring 22 points in the first half of the ball game.  However, he was held to only 4 in the second half because the Grizzlies decided to double on him.  It is going to be interesting to see how the Grizzlies defend Brook.  I think they will come out and double him from the start, and if this happens, hopefully the good shooting can carry over from last game.

Advantage:  Brook Lopez

Advanced Box Score | 3 Shades Of Blue | Straight Outta Vancouver

I am fairly confident in saying that the Nets’ first half last night against the Grizzlies was the best half of basketball that they have played all year.  I mean their attack was perfect.  They were running very opportunistically, pushing the ball, but if there wasn’t anything there, they would slow things down and hit Brook Lopez in the post.  I have been saying all year this is the Nets best chance to win, and they proved that when they play like that they can hang in (and take a double digit lead) with some of the best teams in the NBA.  The problem is, for whatever reason they just stop doing what works, and I don’t really know why.  Is it because that they tense up when a game is within reach because of what happened this season?  Could be.  Is it because they just aren’t good enough offensively to maintain a consistent offensive attack?  Possibly.  Every time a team makes a run on the Nets it’s almost like they just throw their hands up and say, “you know what?  That’s it, we lost.”  The thing that really bothers me is that the Nets have one of the best slump-breakers on their team, Brook Lopez.

I call Brook a slump-breaker because whenever a team can’t hit a shot from the outside (or get an open look), they tend to just toss it inside, and let their big man work.  Brook was on some kind of roll in the first half of last night’s game.  He was hitting open jumpers, working well off the ball (getting a good amount of lobs), and when he got the ball in the post, he just flat-out abused his defender (the one play where he spinned inside and hit a nice little step back jumper being his nicest move).  However, Brook picked up 2 offensive fouls late in the first half (after already having one), giving him 3 and it really killed his momentum.  As he walked off the court with a little over 2 minutes in the first half, Brook had 22 points.  He finished with just 26.  Brook was getting such a consistent amount of touches inside in the first half, it is just really hard to comprehend how he only took 3 shots in the second half (he was 9-11 in the first half, and finished going 11-14).  This schizophrenic play by the Nets is what may keep them from getting 5 more wins to avoid the worst record in the NBA.  Some more thoughts after the jump.

• The first half also saw Devin Harris continuing his fantastic play, in fact, he had a double-double in the first half.  Devin finished with 17 points and 13 assists.
• However, we also caught a glimpse of bad Devin.  He finished the game with 8 turnovers.  A lot of turnovers are the result of what makes him so good, his speed.  Devin is great at attacking, but sometimes he just gets way too out of control, leaving his feet before he has anywhere to go with the basketball.  One play from last night that sticks in my mind is one where Devin attacked the middle and jumped in the air, he then threw it away in the corner.  Yes, Terrence Williams should have been in the corner, but if Devin would have stayed on his feet, he would have noticed that Terrence wasn’t in his proper spot, preventing the turnover.