Nets Are Scorching

Box Score – 3 Shades of Blue – Straight Outta Vancouver

I’m not sure if I was dreaming or just buried up to my neck in snow but I think the Nets actually won this game and finished 4-1 on the home stand. They were down 32-16 at the end of the first quarter, looked hopeless on defense throughout much of the night but played outstanding in the late third and entire fourth quarter to get a W and finish the home stand on a great note. Before this stretch of five games started I hoped the Nets would finish 3-2 but wasn’t exactly expecting it. So for them to go 4-1 and seem to turn a corner is a great sign.

The beginning of this game got off to an ominous start as the Nets struggled on both ends of the floor. They were down 16 at the end of 1 and frankly this is a game they would have lost earlier in the season. The biggest problems in the first two quarters were offensive execution and lapses on defense. Frankly the offense was hard to watch as there were countless possessions where the shot clock wound down under 10 and they took an awful shot (that sometimes actually went in, even when Johan Petro took it). That was the biggest reason why they scored just 42 points in the first half. On defense it was a combination of the Nets offering no resistance and the Grizzlies shooting lights out that led to an 11-point Memphis lead at the half.

One of my keys before this game was the bench continuing to do its thing and provide the team with a spark. Well tonight thanks to Sasha Vujacic, Kris Humphries and especially Anthony Morrow, the Nets bench was better than their starters in this game. They outscored the Nets starters 56-37 and the Grizzlies bench 56-12. They were unquestionably the catalysts that led the Nets on their comeback and were tremendous in all phases of the game. 

The best player on the entire team came off the bench tonight and that was Anthony Morrow. I know Avery said he wants to continue to bring the sharpshooter off the pineso he doesn’t mess with the team’s winning ways, but if the former Georgia Tech product keeps playing like this, the Coach might have to start him to maximize his minutes. Morrow had 19 points on 8-12 shooting and once again hit some huge shots down the stretch to propel the Nets to this victory. I knew before the season that Morrow could shoot the ball but scoring like this has been a pleasant surprise.

Stopping Rudy Gay was another thing that I thought would be a key in this game and the Nets didn’t exactly contain him (22 points on 10-18 shooting), but they did limit his free throw attempts. Gay had 22 points but he had to work for them and only got to the line twice in the entire game. When you’re dealing with a big-time scorer, it’s critical to limit their free throws because it allows them to rest when they get to the line. Although Gay had a good night, he didn’t get many free points.

Although they were up 5 with under a minute to go and the Grizzlies had some chances to tie the game, the Nets were able to make their free throws when they needed to, especially Brook Lopez and Devin Harris. The team’s two best players were a combined 10-28 from the field but they were 9-10 from the line and made every big foul shot in the final minute. This was a night when the bench dominated but the Nets still needed their best players to step up in crunch time. 

The disparity from the three-point line was one of the key reasons that the Nets were able to prevail and get this win. The Grizzlies were a miserable 2-12 from downtown while the Nets made 9 of 17 three’s, good for 52.9 percent. Not surprisingly at all, “The Machine” and Morrow combined for 6 of those 9 treys and if these two keep their hot shooting up, the Nets will continue to play well.

This team is clearly playing their best basketball of the season and I just hope it continues. Every time they’ve played a few good games this season, they’ve frustratingly fallen back into what’s gotten them in trouble and lost a few in a row. With two winnable games at Indiana and Milwaukee this weekend, it would be great to see them continue this hot streak and actually put together an extended run. Either way this team is becoming fun to watch again and I’m actually starting to look forward to Nets games again…

AP Photo/Julio Cortez

Well, that was a close one.

If you thought my last recap of a Nets game was condemning of the franchise, that would have only been scratching the surface of what I would have written had the Nets blown this game against the Cavaliers.

Fortunately, Avery Johnson and the rest managed to figure out in time that they were playing Cleveland, the league’s worst team by consensus, just before the night ended. To be honest, though, the means to the end were disappointing to say the least. While the offense was more potent than usual, the defense was equally pungent. Two days after holding the Dallas Mavericks to under 90 points, the Nets allowed (and I do mean allowed) the Cavs to break the century mark in addition to letting them shoot 45 percent from the field. By absolute standards, that’s not terrible — but again, these are the Cavs.

In the pregame open thread, I cautioned about letting Antawn Jamison and J.J. Hickson get going offensively. Apparently that memo didn’t reach the team. In related news, Brett Yormark may or may not be using the correct cover page on his TPS reports.

Hickson was a volume shooter, to be sure, needing 19 field-goal attempts just to muster 12 points. Jamison, on the other hand, tore the Nets apart from all areas: from the paint, from deep, and from the charity stripe. The only sign of NBA basketball left on that team torched the Nets for 26 points on 7-of-16 shooting, including 2-of-5 from downtown, and perfect 10-of-10 shooting from the free-throw line. I suppose you can’t guard everyone all the time, but aren’t there better candidates for the Daily Ignored than Jamison on that team?

Meanwhile, I’d like to credit Joey Graham for pulling an anti-Stephen Graham at the end of tonight’s game. With the Cavaliers down three points, Joey stuck a three-pointer from the corner to square the game at 101. It was Stephen who, in the second overtime of the Nets’ 3OT loss to the Thunder, fouled Jeff Green in the act of shooting from beyond the arc with the Thunder down three points. Kudos to Joey.

Before I rant about how good things happen when Brook Lopez has the ball in his hands in the fourth quarter, here’s a short aside about Derrick Favors.

The man had a good first half, including a four-play stretch in the second quarter that made him look like an all-star. Amassing four points and two great defensive plays during that span, Favors started making me come to grips with the dissolution of the Carmelo Anthony trade. Moments later, he followed it up with a couple of bonehead plays that brought me back down to Earth. Overall, he had a great game. 8 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 blocks in 17 minutes is impressive.

Obviously that last figure begs the question: why didn’t he play more? The immediate answer that comes to mind: He must have been in foul trouble. But what if I told you he didn’t have a single personal foul during those 17 productive minutes?

It’s true, in fact, that Avery Johnson decided to bench Favors for the remainder of the game after failing to box out on a free throw leading to a Cleveland offensive rebound. When you have a player like Kris Humphries (11 points, 11 rebounds) coming off the bench, you can afford to play the disciplinarian role with a young player to make the point that fundamentals are necessary to winning. So I have no qualms with Johnson’s personnel decisions.

But once Hump starts taking shots from more than 10 feet away from the basket, maybe it’s time to give the rook a second chance. Hump’s a great rebounder and bruiser, but midrange shooting isn’t exactly his specialty. No matter — the Nets won, and Favors will think twice before he blows a box out on a free throw again.

As for Lopez: Has Johnson finally realized that he can be an asset in the closing minutes? On essentially every play in latter half of the fourth quarter, the Nets ran the same set with double picks along the baseline to establish Brook in the post with a mismatch. And it worked.

After missing a shot with 8:41 left to play in the game, Lopez took four shots before the end; he made all four of them, including a 10-foot jump hook with just over a second left to seal the game.

It’s easier to defend giving the ball to Lopez in the post down the stretch when Anthony Morrow is back to keep defenders honest on double teams, but it appears the Nets have found a stop-gap solution to their lack-of-a-closer woes. How many centers can seal a game for their team like that with such efficiency? Very few.

Speaking of Morrow, his return to this team has been a godsend. Vujacic is a good shooter, there’s no doubt, but Morrow just adds to the team’s arsenal from beyond the three-point line. His shooting ability lets the Nets space the floor so much better, and if defenders overplay him, he can beat them with a dribble move and pull up from anywhere in the 10- to 15-foot range. And he never misses from there. Morrow only had 16 points and shot 1-of-6 from deep this game, but his buckets always seem to be meaningful.

Lastly, give credit where credit is due: Jordan Farmar had a solid game, logging 11 points while shooting 3-of-4 from distance. I think it’s the hair; he’s recreating the UCLA mystique.

The Nets should have won, but Dallas played keep-away. AP Photo/Bill Kostroun

Box Score – Two Man Game – Mavs Moneyball

Coincidence or not, there’s no question that the Nets have been playing better basketball since the infamous Mikhail Prokhorov “I must break you, Denver” press conference on Wednesday. But after knocking off a very good Utah Jazz team and a very bad Detroit Pistons team, expectations were a little mixed as to how the Nets would hand the Dallas Mavericks last night. A good team that’s been struggling since the New Year, especially on the road, the Mavericks feature a host of offensive weapons that Nets have seemingly been unable to contain around the league this season. Yet, when the dust settled last night, the Nets ended up losing a game they unquestionably should have won.

It was an 87-86 win for the Mavericks, a one-point game which means it could have gone either way. However, the Nets outplayed the Mavericks in so many areas, I don’t understand how they were ever in a position to have to storm back and take a lead in the game on an 8-0 run in the last 4 minutes, only to watch Dirk Notwitzki take the whole thing away with an up an under move that dropped in after rolling around on the rim for what seemed like an eternity.

Let’s start with the Nets’ entire defensive effort, which I thought was pretty solid. While the Mavs are not the juggernaut they once were, they still have Dirk and Jason Kidd in the starting line-up and a great instant offense guy in Jason Terry lurking on the bench. The Nets held the Mavs to 35 percent shooting for the game and 87 points on about 90 possessions, which works out to an offensive efficiency of about 97 points per 100 possessions, well below the Mavs season average of 104.9 points per 100 possessions. I thought the Nets bigs, despite Brook Lopez (4), Derrick Favors (4) and Johan Petro (5) all getting into foul trouble, did a good job rotating on Dirk and holding him to 7-24 shooting for the game. The Mavs kept riding Dirk all night, and obviously with good reward, but while he did miss a few wide open shots, he also missed a bunch of shots because they Nets kept throwing a different mix of defenders at him and constantly had two hands in his face before any jumper.

Of course how the Nets chose to defend Dirk on Dallas’ final possession will probably raise some eyebrows.  After giving Dallas the ball back with 20 seconds left (we’ll get to the last two offensive possessions for the Nets in a moment), everyone in the arena knew who was going to get the next shot. The only question for me was how many seconds the Mavericks were going to leave the Nets at the end. I’ve been a very vocal critic of Avery Johnson’s insistence that Stephen Graham is some kind of defensive whiz. Despite whatever reputation proceeded him before he joined the Nets this year, earlier this year I used some on court, off court numbers from 82games.com to show that Graham is not making a difference on that end. We’re not more than halfway through the season, a season that Graham has regrettably played a lot of minutes, and the number still hold serve. The Nets defense allows 115.5 points per 100 possessions when Graham is on the floor and 108.9 points per 100 possessions when he’s off. OK, we get it, he has to play right now because of injuries the Nets are super thin at SG and SF, but he shouldn’t be anywhere near the floor in a crunch time defensive situation. The Nets would even be better with Travis Outlaw on the floor in those spots (113 points per 100 possessions defensively), but I don’t expect things to change from Avery anytime soon.

It’s not even that Graham played Dirk that poorly on the final possession but I felt the Nets let the two of them go one-on-one for far too long. It was inevitable before Graham bit on one of Dirk’s fakes, and the help defender, Lopez, came over a tick too late as Dirk had already worked his way up and under with a clear shot of the rim. It was still a tough angle shot to hit, but it’s Dirk, he hits those. I would have much rather seen the Nets throw a pair of defenders at Dirk earlier and either force him to shoot or pass to someone else. The Nets had done a solid job rotating all night. That last possession was not the time to get cocky and play Dirk straight-up.

Still, even with that last Dirk shot, the Nets had 6 seconds and a timeout left to try and pull out the victory. The Nets offense was nowhere near as efficient last night as it was on Friday, only shooting 44.4 percent from the floor, but they did rack up 23 assists to the Mavs’ 18, and Devin Harris (11 assists) especially did a good job moving the ball around … until the end. On the possession prior, with the Nets milking a one-point lead, the Nets ran an isolation for Harris and he ended up air-balling a 15-footer. It also looked like he was hit in the head on the play by Shawn Marion, but prior to that, Marion also tipped the ball. You could quibble about the non-call, but it was an extremely predictable play by Avery/Devin.  Brook Lopez, despite 6 turnovers, was having a decent night offensively with 24 points on 10-15 shooting. Tyson Chandler (19 points on 7-11 shooting), probably the biggest beneficiary offensively of the Nets double teaming of Dirk, also had five fouls at the end of the game. In other words, the Mavs were having a hard time stopping Brook in the closing minutes in the fourth. So naturally, the Nets moved away from that plan and went to Devin.

Similarly on the last possession, the ball was in Devin’s hands for the most of it. This time he was looking to pass, but exhibited zero urgency during the play. After an awful in-bounds pass that saw the ball sail over Devin’s head to the opposite baseline he dribbled, dribbled, dribbled some more and didn’t make his move until there was only about two seconds left. He motioned as if he was going to try and thread the needle from top of the key into the paint to draw defenders, but Dallas collapsed early and Harris left his feet mid-move, forced to make a bad pass to Jordan Farmar. It was a bas pass for two reasons – leaving his feet left Harris with no momentum in the direction where the pass was going, so it was a weak little pass that cost valuable tenths of seconds. Second, Farmar was covered like a glove. The result was an airball from Farmar, but even if he hit the shot, I don’t think he got the shot off on time because of how long it took Devin to get into his offense. For the past two seasons, the Nets have developed a track record of not even being able to get the final shot off when they have that opportunity. And I think the common thread here is Harris. I like Harris, I really do, but I’ve never seen a guy’s sense of urgency and decision making abilities go on the fritz in crunch time quite like his. It’s almost as if that half-court heave he sank against Philly two years back inversely robbed him of his ability to efficiently manufacture the game’s final shot. Even during the Chicago game where Sasha Vujacic won the game with five second left, Sasha’s shot came off the rebound of a bad pass from Devin to Brook with the game’s final second ticking down. Sasha was in the right place at the right time, otherwise the Nets would have ended the game turning the ball over.

A few more thoughts after the jump:

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David Dow/NBAE via Getty Images

Box Score – Piston Powered – Detroit Bad Boys – Need4Sheed

Impressive. That’s the word I’d use.

It was an ugly victory, but impressive is a good word for describing a team defense that allowed only 33% shooting while shooting 50% from the field. That for the second straight game rode a balanced attack to a decisive victory. That despite a lot of bonehead plays, missed defensive assignments, and non-offense still managed to beat up on a team that, frankly, should be beaten up on.

This is the Nets that I envisioned at the beginning of the year: mistake-prone but with the potential to explode at any given moment.

Don’t let the low score fool you; this wasn’t a poor offensive showing by the Nets. When two slow teams play each other, there’s a good chance that the pace will be below their season average, since they’re usually playing against average-paced teams. Sure enough, this game only saw 83 possessions for the two teams. (To compare, the league average is 92.4.) 89 points on 83 possessions is not too shabby. 74? That’s a different story.

I won’t lie to you: much of this win is due to the ineffectiveness of the Pistons. Time after time they failed to pass to an open man on offense or rotate to cover the open man on defense. The Nets played great basketball, but gave away 29 free throw attempts – of which the Pistons made less than 70%. Detroit seemed content giving the ball to Tayshaun Prince and letting him isolate to no end, resulting in a somewhat empty 6-17 shooting performance from him. They drew a lot of fouls but didn’t seem particularly interested in creating open shots.

That being said, the Nets had a lot of solid defensive possessions. Their rotations were, at times, perfect. At one point I nearly screamed at Derrick Favors for doubling a pick & roll and leaving the roll man open, but Brook Lopez immediately rotated over to the roll man and Sasha Vujacic rotated down to cover his man & Brook’s on any cross pass. It was clockwork. It didn’t happen on every possession, and I don’t expect it to. But those are the baby steps that lead up the stairs of success.

Anthony Morrow was back for the first time since December 14th, and man, did he make an impact. In a stretch that lasted under two minutes of game time, Morrow scored ten points – one a buzzer-beating three to end the third quarter, and another an open three in transition to send Detroit into a timeout. On that second three, you could see the play developing seconds ahead – both teams traded turnovers and Morrow had been spotting up as soon as the Nets stole the ball back. You could have called it from outside of the arena.

In just 1:46, Morrow single-handedly turned a four-point lead (64-60) into a twelve-point lead (74-62). The Nets never looked back. This is the guy they signed off on. I love it.

Offensively, this was an extremely balanced effort. The Nets had four players in double figures, but no player with more than 15 points. Eight players took between six and 11 field goals. (Travis Outlaw, the inefficient man of the night, was 3-11. Derrick Favors was 3-4. Remind me why Outlaw gets eleven shots again?) The Nets got 48 points from their starters and 41 off the bench. They outrebounded the Pistons 44-35, out-assisted them 23-12, and allowed only one opposing player to shoot more than 50 percent from the field: Will Bynum, who shot 4-7 and committed four turnovers.

Brook Lopez continues to be a rebounding enigma, but there’s definitely merit to the “Kris Humphries the Board-Stealer” theory. Humphries crashes the boards with reckless abandon, no matter who’s around him or if the Nets already would have it secured. Lopez had a very solid all-around game otherwise, leading the Nets with 15 points, dishing out four assists, and blocking three shots.

Some analysis of offensive sets: the Nets had 21 points come from spotting up yesterday – nine of their 36 field goals, including three threes. It was their most efficient means of scoring, along with finding cutters. As I mentioned in the pregame open thread, the Pistons are excellent isolation defenders, and none of that changed last night. They allowed only 5-13 shooting in isolation sets, forcing two turnovers, and not committing any fouls. If only the Nets read the pregame open threads, they would’ve known to limit that number.

However, they did play to some strengths effectively. In 29 offensive plays combined between the pick & roll ballhandler, roll man, and in transition, the Nets shot 12-21, including two three-pointers and four fouls drawn. Not a bad day at the office. It’s important to note that after I bemoaned Nets guards for looking to shoot off the pick & roll over twice as much as they pass, last night the roles were reversed: the Nets had nine possessions used by the roll man, as opposed to only eight by the ballhandler.

While it’s still frustrating to see Devin Harris & Jordan Farmar flash the occasional  tunnel vision, things could definitely be a lot worse than they were last night. The impressive final score is evidence enough of that.

More thoughts after the jump.

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Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images

Box Score – Salt City Hoops – SLC Dunk

Cue all the “the Nets played well last night because they didn’t have the Carmelo Anthony trade hanging over their heads” talk. That will be a big story line after this game for obvious reasons. But I don’t buy it. As I said Monday the Nets played well enough to win every game on their past road trip. Last night they were just able to put together a full game and put forth one of their better efforts of the season. Whether it was being at home, having the owner Mr. Prokhorov in the building or seeing some other celebrities at The Rock for a change, the Nets played a full game and defeated the Jazz to open the home stand.

After getting off to a rough start and being down early, the Nets were able to put together a nice run and led by eight at the end of the first quarter. The best sign of that quarter (and maybe the whole game) was the play of rookie Derrick Favors. While I don’t buy that the entire team was affected by the Anthony saga, I can maybe accept that Favors was. The rook’s name was being discussed in every single proposed deal and that is a lot to deal with for a young kid fresh out of college (heck, high school). 

But tonight Favors was active, both on offense and defense, and he was able to play effective D without fouling. 12 points, 6 rebounds and 3 blocks is a great line for him and this was one of the better games in his young NBA career. He still has to develop offensively and be able to make jump shots to keep the defense honest, but his play around the rim is already impressive and he can run the floor just as well as any power forward in the NBA.

The second quarter saw the Nets get out to a big lead but a problem that has plagued this team all season happened again as they went through another extended scoring draught. After Jordan Farmar made a three to push the Nets lead to 12 with just under 8 minutes remaining, they scored just 1 point over the next six minutes, allowing Utah to get back into the game. The common problem throughout many of these extended draughts is the number of jumpers the Nets take. This is a team that can get to the foul line effectively, but at times they don’t take the ball to the hole nearly enough. The halftime buzzer sounded and we were tied at 48.

The Nets were able to extend to a 13-point lead at the end of the third quarter with a balanced attack and some good shooting. They put up 29 in the quarter and the defining play was when Travis Outlaw airballed a three pointer. Yes that sounds a little strange but what was defining was what happened afterwards. Favors was in the right place at the right time and was able to get the offensive board off the shot that touched nothing. He dished it to Brook, who put it in and got the foul call. It was a nice hustle play from the rook, a solid finish from the Nets center and once again the team put together a strong third period. 

Before the game I talked about the Nets bench needing to continue to give this team a spark and they were good once again. The three-headed monster of Jordan Farmar, Sasha Vujacic and Kris Humphries (someone needs to come up with a good nickname for them) combined for 38 points on 12 of 18 shooting last night. Farmar added 8 assists and “The Machine” Sasha Vujacic continues to shoot the ball well immediately when he enters the game. I would actually like to see him take more shots since he’s been shooting the ball so proficiently. Five isn’t enough for him and it’s kind of odd considering he’s never been one to be shy about hoisting it up. 

To end my talk on the bench tonight I’ll discuss Kris Humphries. Hump may have had some extra incentive tonight (I’m sure you all saw who was sitting in the front row, and no I’m not talking about Jay-Z) and he brought his usual energy, rebounding and scoring. 12 points and 5 boards is becoming an average night from him, but if you add in the monster baseline dunk that he had to start the fourth quarter, it makes it even better.

Before the game I talked about how the Utah Jazz are one of the better teams out West and they missed a TON of easy shots tonight. Which is why I wasn’t surprised at all when they made it close down the stretch and cut the lead to two on an Al Jefferson And-1 with about 2 minutes remaining. But Brook Lopez made a nice move to push it back to four and the Nets were able to get a couple of stops. They then got the benefit of a video review and got the ball (it was originally awarded to the Jazz) with 52 seconds left.

What followed was a perfect possession for the Nets. They worked the clock down and before you knew it Humphries had the ball with the shot clock under 10. But instead of panicking and settling for a jumper, Hump dribbled it towards the middle, Sasha made a nice cut and finished on the layup to give the team a 6-point lead with 30 seconds remaining.

One of the best things about winning this game was that the Nets were able to get the W without their two best players having good nights. Devin Harris and Lopez combined for 34 points but were just 10 of 27 from the field. Brook had three very strong games in a row so his production was scaled back a bit last night, but he was able to get to the line 11 times (making 8 of them). Whenever your best players have a rough night, it’s always nice to still be able to get a win.

11-31 still doesn’t sound very good, but it’s encouraging to see the Nets get a win over a good team like the Utah Jazz. The team has won just 2 of their last 13 games and somehow those two wins have been over the Bulls and the Jazz. Go figure.

One last thing on last night’s proceedings. Though I’ve been clear that I don’t believe the Carmelo talk had a big effect on this team’s performance, I applaud Mikhail Prokhorov. As a fan I had more than enough of these trade talks so I’m personally glad that it’s finally over and we can focus on the players the Nets DO have. 

The Nets started their home stand off on the right foot and who couldn’t love that high-five between Prokhorov and Billy King as the final buzzer sounded?!?! The team is back in action tomorrow against Detroit…

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.

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:

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AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin

Box Score – Valley of the Suns – Bright Side of the Sun

It’s hard to argue with the Nets effort and execution last night against the Suns, but the result is always what matters. They had a big lead in the third quarter and early in the fourth, but they couldn’t close and struggled offensively through parts of the final period. This was a tough loss against a team they should have beaten, but the one positive thing that should come out of this one is that the Nets need to bring this effort every night. They’ve shown they’re capable of it and they have to start doing it.

Sure I could have chosen a different picture to go with this game recap but it just seemed appropriate to give some props to the two Lopez brothers. It’s safe to say that Brook got the better of Robin in this game, but let’s be honest, Brook is just a better player. Robin has certainly developed his offensive game but Brook’s post moves are much more refined. He actually had a decent rebounding night as well, amazingly coming close to the 10 boards Avery Johnson says he dreams about him getting. However the lasting image of Brook in this game will be of him sitting on the bench, seemingly pouting over Avery’s decision not to play him, but I’ll touch on that more below.

One of the things I wanted to keep an eye on before this game was whether the Nets were distracted by all of the Carmelo Anthony trade rumors. Well they certainly didn’t act like it in the first quarter as they really came out ready to play. The Nets shot 52.4% in the 1st and scored 28 points. Devin Harris was also very aggressive from the start, scoring 7 early points and helping the Nets get out to an 18-10 lead. But with the fast-paced style that the Suns play, it was no surprise that Phoenix quickly came back and it was tied at the end of the quarter. I don’t think anyone can accuse the Nets of not being ready to play at the start of this one.

Speaking of Harris he played a very nice overall floor game in this one. He knew he had to set the tone for this team by scoring and it seemed like once he got the rest of the guys in the flow of the game, he became the facilitator and was able to finish with 15 assists. The Nets point guard had the best game of his career in this building two years ago when he scored 47 and while tonight wasn’t nearly that good, I thought he played a very solid game.

For the second Wednesday in a row (I’ll just chalk it up to a strange coincidence) the Nets had a tremendous third quarter. Last week against the Bulls they were able to build a big lead thanks to some zone defense and last night they executed well offensively, hit some big shots and outscored the Suns 27-18 in the 3rd. The best thing I saw throughout last night’s game was the Nets effort and hustle, which was clearly on display in this quarter. With the shot clock winding down and a loose ball heading towards half court, Quinton Ross hustled after it and saved it to Jordan Farmar. The backup point guard promptly buried a three to put the Nets up 11. Was Ross’ foot on the sideline when he saved that ball? It may have been but I still liked the hustle from him. Speaking of Ross he actually had a pretty good game against Phoenix and was able to make some wide open jumpers to help on offense.

But just like last week the Nets let the opponent back into the game. You can’t really be surprised last night though because it just seemed like a matter of time before the Suns made a run and started to hit some shots. So despite the double digit lead the Nets built at the end of the third quarter, before you knew it Phoenix had a 1-point lead late in the 4th quarter.

When you look at this game you have to give a lot of credit to the Nets bench. Starting with Kris Humphries and Sasha, and extending to Farmar and Ross, the team brought a ton of effort and scoring from the second unit. The “five-some” of Hump, Vujacic, Ross, Farmar and even Johan Petro combined for 59 points and really outplayed the Suns bench. Guys like Humphries and Vujacic have been pretty consistent off the bench but it was nice to see the other guys step up as well.

After 46 minutes of solid offensive basketball, this one was tied at 97 and came down to the final two minutes. The Nets got a real nice possession capped off by a great look from Farmar to Hump to take a 2-point lead. After two Dudley free throws the game was tied once again. But then Farmar took an awful three and then there was an awful call. Travis Outlaw and Humphries had Channing Frye pinned on the baseline when Outlaw was called for a foul he did not commit. Of course Frye promptly buried the free throws and gave Phoenix the lead. 

This is not the same Phoenix Suns team and after watching them for a full 48 minutes (well 53) for the first time all season I think it’s safe to say they’ve started their downslide. But Steve Nash is still remarkable at this point in his career. He was not good from the field (6-17), but he hit one of the biggest shots of the game on a scoop to the hoop with 23.1 seconds remaining and he also dished out 16 assists. 

So the Nets were down 2, with the ball and the shot clock off. And Avery went with the strategy of going early in case they missed. Hump was able to get open again down low, this time for a jam, and the Nets got the stop they needed when Channing Frye turned it over and we were all treated to some free basketball.

I know with the Suns going small to start the Overtime period, Avery had to match that. But leaving Brook on the bench in a close game? The Nets starting center could not have been happy with that. So then when he comes in midway through the OT period, he forces a shot the first time he touches the ball and misses. There were too many empty possessions for the Nets in the Overtime period, and it ended up costing them. Aside from a Vujacic three on the first possession, the team struggled to score while the Suns had no such trouble.

The most interesting part of this game may have come from the Nets bench area. After Brook forced the shot in OT that I previously mentioned, Avery took him out and put the rook Favors in. The cameras then caught Brook on the bench, arms crossed, not looking very happy at all. We’ll see if anything comes of this but the Nets starting center did not look like he was satisfied with the coaching decision.

The Nets played well enough to win this game but in the end they didn’t do enough in crunch time. They were outscored 15-6 in the Overtime period and a game that was very well played ended up being pretty anticlimactic. Tough loss, Brook isn’t happy, the trade rumors will continue and now the Nets go to LA-LA-Land to face the Lakers tomorrow night. Good luck.