Nets Are Scorching

Boxscore – Red 94 – The Dream Shake

Another valiant effort, another loss.

Although the Nets showed some very solid signs of life in spurts in this game, the final score reflected the same result as it did on Wednesday; that over the course of 48 minutes, the Rockets are ten points per game better than the Nets are.

For what it’s worth, the Nets instantly looked stronger at the beginning of the game then they did on Wednesday. Maybe it was adjusting to the time difference, maybe it was just a few more days together, maybe it was skipping the shootaround to start. But the Nets started the game 6-6, and every shot was well created – three shots from Brook inside, two jumpers from Outlaw, and a Harris slash to the basket that looked like it came two seasons ago. They also simply looked more active – Joe Smith, in his first preseason start this year, looked like he’d turned back the clock defensively – moving around quickly and on one occasion blocking a shot with serious force. Devin was diving for loose balls, Terrence Williams was locking down on defense, and while the Rockets still had a very crisp offense the Nets did not look nearly as overmatched as they did early last game.

Well, until after that sixth shot. After starting the game 6-6, the Nets suddenly fell apart, hitting only one of their next 14 shots. Some of that was bad luck, some of it was bad execution, but one thing is for sure: it was bad. The main culprit? Terrence Williams.

It’s clear that Terrence has carried over some of the issues that he had last season. Don’t get me wrong, he’s still chock-full of the positives that make him an exciting player – bouncing around all over the floor, showing off his elite athleticism and throwing laser-beam passes. His weaknesses, though, are still prominent: he was forcing contested shots and rushing through the offense. After Avery’s first timeout, he seemed to get the message, stepping back to distribute and run through the offense, but that didn’t last too long. He hit a wide-open three off a Farmar slash-and-kick early, and his form looks as good as ever, but Avery will need to work with him on his poor selection this season for him to really have a net positive scoring impact. I hope this is just preseason experimentation, because you can’t justify some of the shots he was taking. With his court vision and passing ability, it’s downright criminal.

To put it in numerical terms: In his first 12 minutes, T-Will took 13 shots, most of them self-called isolations. The rest of the Nets up to that point had combined for 14. He finished the game with 16 points on 7-18 shooting. God, he sure can dunk though; one a slam in transition and one Harris alley-oop that he caught high above the rim.

The Nets also showed some signs of laziness defensively. Much of their “activity” was at the end of plays, after the Rockets had run their plays, confused the Nets perimeter defenders, and gotten open looks. The perimeter defense was particularly bad; guards seemingly had no interest in running through screens and instead settled for letting the big men deal with their laziness. Good defense stops good offense at the source, not the end result, and while the blocked shots early were great they shouldn’t all be help-side. One particularly egregious play found Brook Lopez and Joe Smith clobbering Kyle Lowry, who’d gotten a wide open lane to the basket without really doing anything to get it.

Another place the Nets consistently struggled was in transition. The Nets were consistently beaten out on the break, allowing easy layups & dunks throughout the game. While I don’t have a record of the fast break points, it’s surely a huge difference. It’s clear the Nets have a lot of work to do defensively before they become effective on that side of the floor.

If Avery wanted offense from the power forward position, he’s got to be upset after this game. The three true power forwards on this team: Joe Smith, Derrick Favors, and Kris Humphries – combined for a rock-solid zero points, missing four shots from the field in 31 minutes of play. I appreciate Joe Smith’s energy and veteran leadership as much as anyone, but he is assuredly not an offensive weapon. It’s becoming more and more evident that Troy Murphy’s injury is going to hurt a lot to start the season. But hey, anything’s better than Yi again, right?

I’m of the opinion that when run correctly, the pick-and-roll is probably the best play in the NBA. When two guys are really zoned in together offensively, it’s unstoppable. One thing that’s clear early is that Avery Johnson wants the Nets to run it – running with Favors & T-Will three times in the first quarter – but it never worked; twice Terrence made a poor decision (jacking a contested shot or just dribbling away frivolously) and once Derrick missed a layup. I really hope they keep working on it, because those are two absolutely ideal guys to run the pick & roll – two ridiculous athletes at their positions who can dominate when given the right look.

I think playing a team like the Rockets these past two games has been a good contrast. You could argue that the Nets have the more rawly talented players, but the Rockets run their system much more effectively – as they always do. The Nets turned the ball over 17 times and appeared to have no true game plan offensively other than “Give it to Brook/Devin/Terrence and get the hell out of his way.” If this is what It’s All New is supposed to be, I’ve certainly got some concerns.

Overall, the Nets looked just a little off all game. The offense wasn’t perfect, the defense had lapses, but every now and then they gave us a glimpse of just how good they can really be. Devin slashing to the basket for a layup. Brook lofting the ball over Yao & Brad Miller for two. Morrow hitting jumper after jumper. T-Will destroying the rim with no regard for anyone or anything. Outlaw spacing the floor and knocking down jumpers with a man in his face. It’s a good thing that we’re in preseason, because right now the Nets are at a good starting point – one they can hopefully leapfrog off when the season kicks off in eleven days.

More thoughts after the jump.

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AP Photo/Alan Diaz

Hot Hot Hoops – Peninsula is Mightier

The Nets haven’t done a whole lot right this season, so it’s only fitting that they even found a way to screw up their final game of their worst-ever season. With the Miami Heat playing for nothing but seeding, sitting Dwyane Wade, the Nets fell into a huge hole in the third quarter and looked to be playing another game on cruise control on course for their 70th defeat. But rather than just punching the clock and finishing off this putrid season, they came all the way back in the fourth to tie it, had a chance to win it on a fluke offensive foul call by the refs, played poorly in the first overtime but still forced a second, only to ultimately lose anyway.

And what did those 10 extra minutes actually do for the Nets as the organization looks to greener pastures this summer? MIA for all of the fourth quarter and OT periods was their present, Devin Harris, and their future, Terrence Williams, while Brook Lopez was inserted back in for the first OT, only to turn the ball over three times on boneheaded plays (a travel, a shot clock violation and an offensive foul). Yi Jianlian, who’s still trying to prove he belongs on this team in some capacity next season, finished with a more than solid stat line of 23 points, 15 rebounds and 2 blocks, but was virtually ignored towards the end of regulation when Courtney Lee opted to take the ball to the hoop and draw a foul rather than pass it to the wide open Yi in the corner for a chance to win the game. Also, it was nice to see Chris Douglas-Roberts get into the game and make some plays on offense, though 9 points and 4 turnovers for a guy that’s supposedly going to make hay in this league as an instant offense guy is a bit of a letdown.

It was a happier time for Chris Quinn, who looked like a JV player playing out of his league on the varsity squad during Monday’s loss to Charlotte. Last night, Quinn ran the point effectively, only netting 5 points and 2 assists, but grabbing 7 rebounds – which is amazing in itself when you consider he’s the most physically unimpressive player on the floor by far – and not turning the ball over, which is a major accomplished for a team that gave the ball away 20 times last night, leading to 23 points.

But a Yi scoring outburst, some good/some bad from CDR and some efficient play from Chris Quinn are not really the things we as Nets fans should be having dreams about headed into the summer. While this season was far from promising back in October, at the very least, I thought it would be entertaining, watching Devin Harris shoulder the burden by himself, while watching players like Lopez, CDR, Yi, TWill and Courtney Lee evolve into legit NBA ballers. It really didn’t work out that way. Harris seemed overmatched when he wasn’t injured, Lopez grew up, but CDR regressed as the season went along. There’s promise in Terrence Williams, but we haven’t seen enough consistency, and more importantly, accurate shooting, to say anything more, and Yi remains an enigma, the Oliver Perez of the NBA for all of you Mets fans out there. Last night, Harris didn’t play when it mattered, TWill was off, Lopez looked gassed, CDR was okay, and Yi was alternating between sweet looking jump shoots and being rejected by the rim and turning the ball over.

Whereas a team like Miami can essentially play for nothing but a rank – I’d personally rather take on Atlanta in the first round as the #6 seed than Boston as the #5 seed – with their superstar/all-world player on the sidelines in a suit, and still find a way to win. The Nets are still finding ways to lose, perfecting it like a Julliard student does the violin. It was an absolutely ugly game, with the Nets shooting 36 percent, while the Heat shot 40 percent. The only offensive weapon the Heat had, Michael Beasley (25 points, 13 rebounds, 3 blocks) fouled out  in the first overtime. Yet it was Yakhouba Diawara, playing his first minutes of the game, drilling a critical three in the second OT to stretch the lead for Miami.

What I’m getting at is that it’s frustrating to look at Miami’s players on paper, especially when Wade is out, and watch them still outslug the Nets like this, even if it took them two overtimes to do it. 82 games and a few additional minutes later, and I still don’t know what to take from this Nets season. There was the 0-18 start, the Frank firing, the January to forget – where I saw this team play about as uninspired and awful as I’ve ever seen an NBA team play – and the last 6 weeks or so where this team demonstrated a pulse, and more importantly, some ability. But then the last two games for the Nets left a sour taste in my mouth. There was a lot of the “old” Nets on Monday and last night – letting a depleted opponent getting ahead, failing to make a shot when it mattered, the spontaneous disappearance of Devin Harris – and that’s disappointing after an other promising end to the season. When pondering the foundation of this Nets team, are they the players who came out and took advantage of a San Antonio Spurs team without Manu Ginobli and Tony Parker, or are they the team that lets Mario Chalmers and Yakhouba Diaware beat you in double OT? I guess we have all summer to find out.

AP Photo/Bill Kostroun

Queen City Hoops – Rufus on Fire – View from the Couch

The Nets closed out their run of basketball at the Meadowlands last night in similar fashion to how the organization has spent most of their days in the New Jersey swamp: with an uninspired, ho hum loss in front of a paltry crowd. Outside of some excellent work by the YES Network, who were showing clips of “Meadowlands Moments” throughout, there was little pomp and circumstance to this evening. No images of Derrick Coleman and Chris Dudley cutting down the nets and wishing the New Jersey faithful a pleasant good evening. No signs of Jason Kidd or Kenyon Martin electrifying the crowd one more time before the lights were turned off. Instead, the only real connection to this franchise’s past came in the form of the opposing head coach, Larry Brown, who coached the first ever Nets game at the Meadowlands in 1981.

To be honest, I don’t know if there was anyone out there who felt like lingering past closing time at the Meadowlands last night. The Nets are one game away from finishing up their worst season ever, which says a lot for a franchise whose futility may only be rivaled by the Clippers. And while there have been some good times at the Meadowlands, it’s hard to call it a real home for an organization that’s jumped around the New York/New Jersey area for decades. Even their next move to Newark is just a temporary one with Brooklyn appearing to be their final home – for the time being.

As for the game itself – the Nets played poor defense early, squandered a run in the second half by going ice cold shooting-wise in the 4th quarter, and demonstrated their utter lack of depth whenever their bench took the court: ladies and gentleman, your 2009-2010 New Jersey Nets.

While the Nets are far removed now from being considered the “worst of all time,” they’re still a pretty bad team, especially when they’re giving up 59 first half points and allowing an offensively challenged team like the Bobcats to have an incredibly balanced scoring attack with 7 players in double figures. Meanwhile, only 7 players on the Nets even scored a point in this game. While the Nets looked pretty balanced with their starting 5 all scoring 14 or more points, the bench – sans Jarvis Hayes and Keyon Dooling from the start, and Kris Humphries after a first half injury – only scored 4 points total, compared with 50 for the Bobcats bench. Yes, these are NBA players, but it’s especially embarrassing when a guy like Gerald Henderson, who’s gone scoreless in four previous games, drops 14 on the Nets, including a posterizing dunk on Devin Harris in the second quarter.

Still, with all that, the Nets actually clawed back from a double digit first half deficit and briefly grabbed a one point lead in the third quarter. Harris hit two threes early in the third quarter, Terrence Williams was able to score at will near the basket, and the Bobcats were just cold enough to make it appear like a competitive basketball team was on the verge of happening. But it was three layups towards the end of the third that brought Charlotte’s lead back to six, and a 12-1 lead from the Bobcats in the fourth, pushed the game back out of reach for the Nets.

Fortunately, Terrence Williams continues to be a bright spot, and as Ian Eagle speculated after the game, you have to wonder if TWill wants the season to end right now. There was one point in the first half where Williams had 13 of his team’s 27 points.  On a night where Devin Harris wasn’t much of a factor outside of the third quarter, and Brook Lopez had a quiet 16 points and 8 rebounds, Williams was the best player wearing a Nets uniform last night – and with a plethora of impact swingman expected to be available in free agency and the draft this summer, the Nets are going to have to consider long and hard how they can improve their team, while still finding quality minutes for TWill, who is growing into a game changer before our very eyes.

A few more thoughts after the jump.

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AP Photo/Tom Strattman

Eight Points Nine Seconds – Indy Cornrows

In most basketball games, there’s the big picture reason for the outcome – the overall theme of a game – and then the microcosm moment(s) where the momentum of the match-up officially swing in one team’s direction carrying them to the finish line. What I found interesting about last night’s 115-102 victory for the Indiana Pacers over the Nets was the fact that the big picture reason for the Nets loss and the microcosm moment where the game was officially lost were on totally opposite sides of the spectrum in terms of how a team can lose a game.

Let me explain. A quick look at the box score and a big picture statistic sticks out like a sore thumb for the Nets. They allowed the Pacers to score 60 points in the pain on only 12 fast-break points. This just reflects extraordinarily bad interior defense for the Nets. There were just way too many baskets for Indiana throughout the game where it was a one-on-one matchup for their offensive player right under the rim. Like at the 7:00 mark in the first when off of two free throws from Brook Lopez, Danny Granger beat the entire Nets team back down the court and was wide open under the rim for a dunk. The Nets appeared to have Courtney Lee guarding Grander early, and Lee lost track of him in these situations several times. With Lee, probably the Nets’ best defender, having an off game like this, you just knew it was going to be one of those kinds of games defensively for the Nets.

Yet, even with these lapses, the Nets led by as many as 12 early, and even when Indiana started to make their move in the third quarter, the Nets hung around and stayed close to even until about the 4 minute mark where the microcosm moment was introduced. While it would have seemingly made more sense if the Pacers were able to go on their run by making a few uncontested baskets at the rim, they were actually able to sink the Nets for good from the outside.  The Nets completely forget that Troy Murphy is one of those big-men who can shoot, and Murphy made them pay by hitting back-to-back treys, extending a Pacers lead from 2 to 8. While an 8-point lead wasn’t insurmountable for the Nets a night earlier against the Bulls, playing the road-half of a back-to-back probably sucked the last bit of fight out of the Nets, and they were never truly “in” the game from that point forward.

So, while it may be easy on the surface to say the Nets lost this game because of their interior defense, I felt the nail in the coffin came on poor perimeter defense. In other words, it’s the kind of game you expect the worst team in the league to lose, especially against a hot team like Indiana who are 9-2 in their last 11 and look a lot better down the stretch than how they’ve looked most of the season.

A few more thoughts after the jump.

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Bulls By The Horn | Blog-a-Bull | Chris Sheridan’s Game Recap

I said it in the last Thoughts, and I will say it again; at this point in the season, it really isn’t about the wins and losses.  These last few games are really about making sure the guys who are going to be on the team next year (we know who they are by now) finish up on a positive note.  Brook Lopez, Terrence Williams, Devin Harris, and Courtney Lee all had really good games last night, so even if the Nets’ would have lost against the Bulls, I would have been happy.  With that being said, it sure did feel good watch the Nets play the role of the spoilers last night against the Bulls.  A couple times in the second half (and in the overtimes), the Bulls looked like they flipped the switch, and each time I thought to myself “Welp, they were due for a run.  I mean they are playing for something.”  Each time, I was expecting the Bulls to pull away for good.  However, the Nets fought back each and every time, and that was pretty cool to see.  It couldn’t have been more evident in the closing seconds of the fourth quarter.  The Nets had just let the lead slip out of their hands, but Derrick Rose missed a foul shot that kept the game within two.  Instead of settling for a three, Courtney Lee attacked:

This aggressive move is what forced Brad Miller to help, and this help is what freed up Brook Lopez for the tip in dunk (which was definitely not goaltending). I couldn’t be happier for Brook on this play.  He has been the Nets’ most consistent player (and the only player who has played in every single game this year) the entire year, so for him to finally have a moment like this made me feel good for him.  You could tell that he was really excited, just by watching his reaction after the play.

The Nets again showed some resiliency in the first overtime.  After quickly falling behind 7, the Nets fought all the way back to tie the game with 12 seconds left.  The Bulls had the ball, and they put it in Derrick Rose’s hands.  Rose had killed the Nets all night up until this point:

Courtney Lee, without help, cutoff Rose’s lane and forced him into a tough step-back jumper. The Nets then went into the second overtime and really took advantage of the Bulls’ fatigue.

Moving on, we need to look at Terrence Williams’ triple double.  It is a great feat for a rookie (though it is the 4th time this year a rookie came away with a triple double), especially considering how far Terrence Williams has gone.  Williams was tremendous throughout the game as he finished with 27 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists.  You saw what kind of mismatches Williams can create in this game.  The Bulls didn’t really know how to match up with him, they tried Luol Deng to match with Williams’ size.  However, T-Will’s ballhandling ability and athleticism allowed him to get by Deng whenever he wanted.

Some more thoughts after the jump

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Bucksketball | BrewHoop

Remember when the Nets had 8 guys score in double digits.  There was no question that was the main reason for the Nets big win against New Orleans.  Well, last night, the lack of depth is what really killed the Nets.  Outside of Devin Harris and Courtney Lee, nobody really did anything of note.  In fact, other than those two guys, the Nets only had 1 more player in double figures.  It was Yi, who finished with 11 points, but it was 2-8 shooting, and he really didn’t have a major impact.  Jarvis Hayes had a rough game, since he wasn’t knocking down his shot.  It is usually feast or famine with Jarvis, and last night was famine.  Jarvis is a fantastic shooter, but he seems to go in those slumps where he just can’t knock anything down, and that was the case last night.  Brook Lopez also really struggled.  Totally wasn’t expecting that since Andrew Bogut was out, but Brook just didn’t get into a rhythm offensively.  As Jon noted in the comments, part of it had to do with Devin’s hot start.  The other part of it just has to do with the Nets’ offensive strategy.  It just never seems like getting Brook Lopez involved is a priority, and against a team that just lost their best defender in center Andrew Bogut, it’s frustrating.

Trying to focus on the positive a little bit, it was good to see Devin Harris and Courtney Lee get it going.  Now that the Nets have gotten their 1oth (and 11th) win to avoid infamy, the wins don’t really matter.  You want to see the guys who are going to be with the team next year finish on a good note, and seeing Courtney and Devin play well is the start of that.  Both of those guys have been through so much in terms of slumps and injuries that if they can finish the year playing well, they can have something to work off of.  Something to keep them motivated.  On the flip side, I am not really worried about Brook Lopez finishing the year off slow (or slower than the beginning of the year), just because he has played so strong all year and never really had to face any injuries or adversity.

Some more thoughts after the jump:

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Truth About It | BulletsForever

For some reason I was expecting the Nets to come out energized last night.  The Nets were coming off of a blowout against the New Orleans Hornets where no starter played more than 27 minutes (Brook), and the bench minutes were split evenly as well.  Obviously, that didn’t happen.  As lackluster as the Hornets looked two nights ago, the Nets were just as bad, maybe even worse.  They just looked slow the entire game as the offensive wasn’t crisp and the defensive rotations were slow (if they even happened at all).

There are teams that other teams just seem to struggle against.  We have witnessed it in our favor as the Nets just seem to have to Bobcats’ number.  On the flip side, the Washington Wizards just seem to have the Nets’ number.  Most of it is simply match-ups.  Overall, the Wizards’ talent level is equal with the Nets, but where the Wizards excel, the Nets struggle.  Andray Blatche is a great offensive talent, while Yi is one of the worst defensive PFs in the NBA.  Blatche has killed the Nets in the past three games, and tonight was no different.  Blatche was 1 rebound away from a triple-double, putting up 20 points, 13 assists, and 9 rebounds.  The Nets seemed determine to force someone else to beat them, and they doubled Blatche every chance they got in the first quarter.  However, unlike when they doubled Tim Duncan, the strategy wasn’t successful last night.  Part of it was the poor rotations due to the back to back, but another aspect is that Blatche can handle the ball farther out (than a guy like Duncan), and that forces the double to come from longer distances.  Because of that, Blatche is able to survey the court and make the correct pass.  He had 8 assists in the first quarter, but this was maybe the most frustrating:

Here, Blatche makes the catch so far out, that Brook Lopez is hesitant on whether to double or not.  That slight hesitation is what allows Blatche to find Shaun Livingston who was allowed to cut backdoor due to a defensive breakdown by Devin Harris.  Poor defensive rotations is what basically put the Nets out of their misery late in the fourth quarter:

Down 6, the Nets offense started to click, and they badly needed a stop.  Instead, the above happened.  It is funny how the Wizards broadcast cut to that angle right when the play started, as if they were expecting it.  Either way, you can just see the gap that Javale McGee has to drive through to finish with the dunk.

On the offensive end, Brook Lopez seemed to be the only Net who was really into any type of groove.  However, the Nets seemed to fall into that old pattern where they forget to get him the basketball.  The Wizards didn’t have anyone who was big enough to stop him, and when Brook was making the catch down low, he was either finishing or drawing the foul (22 points on 6-12 shooting with 10-11 from the line).  The Nets looked to be out of it early in the 2nd quarter, but after using Brook exclusively they were able to go on a 9-2 run and cut the Wizards lead to 7.  After those possessions late in the second, I thought the Nets finally “got it” and realized that they need to get the ball to Brook in close.  However, this was the first possession for the Nets:

Your eyes aren’t fooling you, Brook Lopez makes his post up at the three point line and ends up making a catch 35 feet away from the basket.  Part of it is on Brook for floating out that far out, but some of it is on the coaching staff for not running a play that puts Brook right on the block.

Some more thoughts after the jump:

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Hornets 24/7 | At The Hive

In most instances I don’t like to use +/- for a one game sample size, but Terrence Williams +/- of +26 during yesterday’s  win against the New Orleans Hornets is a very telling stat.  T-Will was the one player on the Nets who made things go.  Sure he only had 14 points (7-13 shooting), but his shot selection was real impressive.  I think my favorite play was on a fast break in the first half where Williams pushed the ball all the way into the lane where he hit an eight foot jumper.  Earlier in the year, the 8-footer would have been a three pointer (as noted by Marv Albert and Jim Spanarkel), and that really shows the growth Terrence Williams had made throughout the year.  Where Williams really shined last night though was when he was passing the ball.  T-Will racked up 14 assists to go along with his 14 points, with a lot of them coming off the dribble.  The pass off the dribble might be the hardest one for NBA players to make, and Williams makes it look easy.  The ability to pass it off the dribble instead of gathering oneself and then making the pass allows for the pass to get their quicker, giving the player who makes the catch more time to get the shot up.

As Williams told Ben Couch, he wasn’t the only one who played well:

“It wasn’t only me,” Williams said. “I did some things, but you’ve got to credit my teammates – they hit the shots. I would say that I had a little energy tonight, but that’s my job. When you come off the bench and you’re the energy guy, you’ve got to come in with energy.”

The Nets’ depth has been their biggest problem this year, but for one night, it was really sparked the team.  All 11 players who got in the game for the Nets (Trenton Hassell was the only active player who didn’t play) scored, with 8 of them getting into double figures.  The second unit played very well against the Hornets, especially in the third quarter.  The Nets were in one of their patented 3rd quarter funks, but then the bench came in and closed the third with a little 6-0 run that expanded the Nets lead from 7 to 13, effectively putting the game away.

Some more thoughts after the jump:

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