Game Recap

Game Recap

Nets 114, Cavs 101: Everything, Good And Bad, Plainly On Display

Posted on: November 14th, 2012 by Devin Kharpertian No Comments

 

Joe Johnson Brooklyn Nets

Oh look! it's Joe Johnson! (AP/Frank Franklin II)

BROOKLYN, N.Y. -- In a confusing blowout, the Brooklyn Nets took a double-digit lead at 6:18 of the second quarter and never relinquished it, comfortably conquering the Cleveland Cavaliers, 114-101. Though the Cavaliers made a few runs at the lead in the second half, outscoring the Nets 33-21 in the final quarter, the Nets continued to keep a respectable distance throughout the half.

First, the good. Joe Johnson and Deron Williams finally did that thing we were waiting for them to do -- play well at the same time -- and yet, their "times" came separately in the contest. That's not a criticism, just a recognition of the game flow. Williams came on early, scoring a variety of scoops and jumpers, spreading the wealth around (including a perfect alley-oop to Brook Lopez in the first quarter off a broken playset), and finishing with the team lead in scoring. Joe Johnson caught fire late, scoring sixteen points in the fourth quarter to upgrade from "another decent game" to "unleashing the final hellscape on poor Cleveland".

Though some may disagree, this wasn't the breakout game we've been waiting for from Joe Johnson... MORE →

Game Recap

Brooklyn Nets 82, Orlando Magic 74: Winning Ugly is Still Winning

Posted on: November 11th, 2012 by Devin Kharpertian 2 Comments

 

Deron Williams Brooklyn Nets, E'Twaun Moore Orlando Magic

The Nets didn't make it pretty, but they made it. (AP/Seth Wenig)

BROOKLYN, N.Y. -- I think the adage goes, "ugly wins beat pretty losses." The Nets did their best to test that adage Sunday afternoon, winning an 82-74 slogger at home against the Orlando Magic, starting the ¡first! Brooklyn Nets winning streak in Brooklyn Nets history.

In a game they should've won by at least twice the final margin, the Nets are glad to take the victory, however problematic the process. "We're happy with the win, but I don't think we're happy with how we played in the second half, especially in the fourth quarter," Deron Williams noted postgame. "Even though we get up 20, it doesn't mean we can lose our aggressiveness."

They did. It was a tale of two game sections -- the first quarter, in which the Brooklyn Nets overpowered the hapless Magic, nearly doubled their shooting percentage (56.5% to 29.2%), dished 11 assists on 13 field goals, C.J. Watson scored six points in about one second after hitting a three, thieving an inbounds pass, and hitting an and-one layup, and left the quarter with a comfortable 35-17 lead.

The game's remainder proved a stark contrast to that first quarter. After jumping out with that 35-point barrage and eighteen-point lead, the Nets scored just 47 points in the final three periods. What had worked in the first quarter -- multiple screens leading to open shots -- seemed abandoned from then on. The Nets' offense turned stagnant in worrisome ways, swinging from one isolation to the next as if guys were taking turns going one-on-five. Even pick-and-rolls/pops turned into isolations, as the screen's effect was rendered useless as the Nets waited… and waited… and turned every play into "I'll get mine." They didn't, and nearly lost the lead for it.

After a 39-point drubbing in Florida, tonight's contest proved a stunningly polar opposite to Friday night's conclusion. On Friday, the Brooklyn Nets allowed Orlando to roam within striking distance before Marie Antoinette'ing their defense to the tune of 57 points in 22 minutes. Tonight, they brought Orlando within striking distance and slogged, never taking full control of the game while never fully relinquishing their hold on it. In the final 17:50, the lead ebbed effortlessly from five to fifteen points, never quite taking the leap to blowout but never quite allowing the Magic to truly make it interesting.

That isn't to say that an ugly game didn't allow some beauty. Kris Humphries attacked the glass relentlessly to the point of absurdity, finishing with 21 hard-earned rebounds and beating the entire Orlando Magic team in offensive rebounding for a long stretch of the game. Brook Lopez, though he finished with an unacceptable seven turnovers and allowed Glen Davis to abuse him at times, did score a team-high 20 points and passed with a previously unseen vision. The Nets did function with a sinister sync in the first quarter, as Lopez, Williams, Humphries, and Watson -- the team's "core four" without Gerald Wallace playing and Joe Johnson clicking -- contributed their multivariant talents to a victorious cause. Jerry Stackhouse hit another three, proving that mere mortality cannot contain Jerry Stackhouse.

So ugliness forgotten. For now, the Brooklyn Nets have won two straight, have a 3-2, and have two more games at home before their ¡first! west coast trip. Both are winnable, if not difficult, matchups, particularly balanced on the status of Gerald Wallace's ankle. The Cleveland Cavaliers are a better team than the Nets just disposed of in back-to-back fashion and the Boston Celtics are perhaps the best non-Heat team in the conference. Brooklyn has now won small, won big, and won ugly. The next step is turning winning into routine.

Game Recap

Brooklyn Nets 107, Orlando Magic 68: Writing on the Wall

Posted on: November 10th, 2012 by Devin Kharpertian 1 Comment

 

Andray Blatche Brooklyn Nets, Andrew Nicholson

Andray Blatche led the Brooklyn Nets in scoring in a 39-point blowout. I know! (AP/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

ORLANDO, FL. -- That's about as well as you can follow up a blowout loss, no?

Fresh off their trip mid-collision course in the path of Flying Death Machine Miami Heat, the Brooklyn Nets mustered some combination of taking out their 1-2 frustrations and decimating an inferior team two nights later, embarrassing the Orlando Magic to the tune of 107-68. Even without Gerald Wallace and MarShon Brooks (Josh Childress was a late addition), the Nets dominated Orlando, somehow leading from start to finish that abused Josh McRoberts as a pick-and-roll ballhandler ("used" is not a proper term here). The Magic scored fewer points in four quarters than the Nets did in three, and the victory snapped a ten-game losing streak for NJ/Brooklyn in Orlando.

This was a game of brief Orlando Magic runs and long, stretched-out Brooklyn Nets ones. The Nets attacked early with Brook Lopez, finding him inside and running through him in the post multiple times. Lopez scored, drew fouls, scored, drew fouls, and helped the Nets rocket to an early lead. As Lopez was the sole offensive factor in the first quarter, the Magic tightened the lead behind some open shots and quick midrange jumpers, and the blowout was hardly on after one.

It was the second quarter when the writing began appearing on the wall. With most of their starters catching a breath, Brooklyn rode unlikely heroes Andray Blatche and Jerry Stackhouse to a laughable second-quarter lead. Blatche wheeled and dealed, snuck and ducked, upped and undered opponents to death, while Stackhouse found himself free in the corner for three open three-pointers. It was the best of times, as said by a novel penned in Stackhouse's youth.

Despite a fourteen-point lead at the half, the Magic had one final push in them. Josh McRoberts and Nikola Vucevic both scored off Glen Davis dishes, and soon after E'Twaun Moore buried a deep three. Just like that, the lead was 50-43, and the game was on again.

That's when things really started getting silly.... MORE →

Game Recap

Brooklyn Nets 96, Minnesota Timberwolves 107: Welp

Posted on: November 6th, 2012 by Devin Kharpertian No Comments

 

Nikola Pekovic

Nikola Pekovic and the Minnesota Timberwolves dropped'a'bomb'on'Brooklyn. (AP/Frank Franklin II)

Note: a site traffic overload left us without the ability to do our live grades. We're truly sorry for that issue. Hopefully the recap gives you an idea of how they'd grade.

I hope you're not reading this. I really, truly hope that you're paying attention to something far more important, whether that's today's presidential election, or your family's recovery from Hurricane Sandy, or putting your effort towards comprehending quantum theory, or omphaloskepsis. I hope recalling the final eighteen minutes of this Brooklyn Nets debacle doesn't singe your irises the way it assuredly did or would have live.

Remember that first half? That glorious first half? Outside of Nikola Pekovic, whose testosterone strikes fear testosterone, and even including him, the Nets had every bit of control over this game. Brook Lopez continued his streak of getting to the line at absurd rates. Deron Williams slashed and dished like a Top Chef, and the team elicited a specific, encouraging synergy. Even Mirza Teletovic, who spent his first 7.3 seconds in an official Brooklyn Nets game at the end of that first half, drained a 3 within six seconds of his first herringbone step. All looked well.

The Nets appeared to be lapping the Wolves on their trek towards victory lane. Up fifteen after 24 minutes after their half of offensive wizardry, the Nets then opened the third quarter in full-out destruction mode, tossing threes into a nylon ocean. After opening up a 22-point gulf with 22 minutes on the clock, all Brooklyn needed was to maintain less than one point per minute against, and they'd leave Barclays Center with their second victory in two attempts.

Welp.

In the final 21:24, the Nets were outscored 58-25. The Timberwolf tortoise lulled the Brooklyn hare into a false sense of security, before spending the final eighteen minutes snapping the rabbit in half. There's more than enough blame to go around for what went west. The team scored just ten points to Minnesota's 32 and shot 4-18 in the final quarter, as the team shied away from spreading the floor and played low-sum hero ball when no hero was required.

The fearsome foursome bench mob defined ineffective. Backup center and preseason revelation Andray Blatche elicited memories of Johan Petro and Josh Boone, failing to rotate throughout the second half and standing on hand while a seventeen-point lead evaporated to zero. Reggie Evans, fan (okay, my) favorite, grabbed eleven fewer rebounds in the same amount of playing time as game one. At some point, Brook Lopez, Deron Williams, and Joe Johnson all fired shots that would normally get them fired. Each turned the game from team sport to their sport, throwing the ball towards the rim hoping something wonderful would result. It did in the first two and a half quarters, when finding team points was the goal. So much for that.

I jokingly tweeted "Where Newark at?" after the game, since so much of the final 18 minutes reminded me of the Travis Outlaw-Stephen Graham-Johan Petro days of Jersey yore. But Brooklyn ain't Newark, and last night was proof of that; neither team in Newark these past two seasons would've had much resolve to gain a 22-point lead worth losing. That's hardly a ringing endorsement, but on a team chock-full of firsts, it's a(nother) start.

The Nets are still without Gerald Wallace. I say this not to promote that as an excuse for tonight's collapse -- though the game obviously would've ended with a significant difference, the Timberwolves were short their two best players -- but as a note conjoined with the fact that they contend with the NBA champion Miami Heat on Wednesday evening, and will likely attempt to contain LeBron James without their crashing, sparking, smashing small forward. After their Manhattan rivals disposed of Miami in spectacular fashion, I can only imagine that their likely loss Wednesday night will continue to stoke those "little brother" flames.

As Williams said after the game, every team has two or three games like this. 47 wins just means 35 losses. They happen. This game happened. As their minority owner, the one who spent the night in Ohio battling for bigger things, would say, on to the next one. If only the next one weren't a matchup with the greatest basketball player of this generation.

Game Recap

1-0: BROOOOOK-LYNNNN

Posted on: November 4th, 2012 by Devin Kharpertian No Comments

 

Brooklyn Nets Deron Williams

BROOKLYN, N.Y. -- On what's hopefully the final glorious first in a long, raucous series of firsts, the Brooklyn Nets picked up their first victory in their first official game in their sparkling new arena, taking down the foe nobody wanted them to play in their first game, the Toronto Raptors. With Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, NBA commissionner-incumbent David Stern, NBA commissioner-elect Adam Silver, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, and more on hand, opening night was every bit the spectacle you'd imagine.

Deron Williams entered the record books with the first two points in Brooklyn Nets-Barclays Center history, a long two-pointer off a few swing passes. He also recorded the final points in the game, a fitting opening bookend for the $98 million man, and finished with 19 points to complement nine sharp assists. Williams' outside shot was not falling this evening, but that was no fault of his looks, just lady luck. Next time.

The spry, youthful Raptors posed as a bemusing threat in the first frame. Kyle Lowry rained threes from the Prudential Center, and the Raptors took advantage of a simplified defensive system that still proved too complex for the Brooklyn Nets to master. What the Nets -- particularly Brook Lopez -- exhibited in defensive desire, they merely lacked in ability.

That all changed when the second unit took the reins in the second quarter; the once-open Toronto pick-and-rolls suddenly squeezed, open shots materialized from white uniforms, and the barrage of Toronto shots that seemingly dropped from thin air started clanging off side rims. With a bench mob led by starter/initiator Joe Johnson, the fearsome foursome fell into their roles; MarShon Brooks threatened to score each possession, Dray Day Blatche lofted orange into nylon, and C.J. Watson & Reggie Evans raised their own unique hells.

The 6'0" on a tall day Watson hit open shots like a backup point guard should (#HelloSundiata), played tight man defense, created in transition for self and others, and blocked two shots -- leading the Brooklyn Nets and tying seven-foot Raptors rookie Jonas Valanciunas for the game high. Evans was a monster unto himself: with a grasp of the defensive scheme that embarrasses his slow compatriots, Evans locked down lanes and gobbled rebounds as if his NBA career depended on it -- which, after all, it does.

After a sixty-point first half -- a larger front 24-minute figure than any New Jersey Nets game last season -- the Brooklyn Nets extended their barrage of buckets into the third quarter and beyond. By utilizing a smart set, with Kris Humphries functioning as a double-screener for Williams and then Gerald Wallace, the Nets found action for Lopez, Wallace, and Deron Williams early in the third to build their lead into double digits.

Lopez deserves special mention here. He attacked early, drawing five shooting fouls in the first half and utilizing his patented rip move and deke to throw Valanciunas and Aaron Gray off balance. He dropped 27 like it was both a duty and a breeze. None of his concerns dissipate after a five-rebound, low-defense affair, but it's worth noting that Lopez blitzed ballhandlers, cutting off penetration early and not allowing guards to get deep into the lane. The trade-off here is that Lopez is too slow to then backtrack to his man -- the one that set the screen -- and that forces the rest of the defense to rotate and leave someone open while Lopez scrambles. That's a trade-off the Nets have to build around.

Both Watson and Evans earned second-half and crunch-time minutes from their first-half exploits, both at the expense of Kris Humphries, who played an underwhelming 22 minutes, and just 32 seconds in "crunch time." Part of this was the matchup advantage: Raptors coach Dwane Casey experimented with a two-point guard set with Kyle Lowry and Jose Calderon, and considering Watson's considerable talent as a backup, it only made sense to counter with the same.

As the Brooklyn Nets closed this victory out, the crowd owned the word -- because "cheer" doesn't seem like the right term here -- and, conversely, the word owned the crowd. The haunting enunciation filled the arena, as if it were designed to hold nothing but those two syllables. Like the game's outcome, it took some time to master -- the chants were scattered some times, flat-out boring in others -- but once victory was within reach, it all came together, chillingly and seamlessly.

"BROOOOOOOOOK-LYNNN. BROOOOOOOOOOK-LYNNNN."

They've come a long way from "LET'S. GO. HEAT."

Game Recap , Manhattan Knicks Rivalry

Notes from Nets-Knicks in Nassau

Posted on: October 26th, 2012 by Devin Kharpertian No Comments

 

Brooklyn Nets Deron Williams

In the Brooklyn Nets' final ultimately meaningless game, played in a building that was architecturally ancient on building day, the Nets took yet another preseason game to overtime. The final call in both final frames ended in failure, as MarShon Brooks flailed towards the basket with no avail as the clock ran down. Brooks foolishly expected a referee, playing a meaningless game in Hempstead, N.Y., to give these respective reserves a chance to play even more mediocre preseason basketball.

For those of you anguished by this final preseason loss, do yourself and your psyche a solid and take no inference from the crunch-time play in this contest for one reason and one reason alone. The Nets did not play a starter for the final 11:43 of the game. MarShon Brooks, for all his glory, will never take that last-second shot in a meaningful game with this roster. The supposition that he will is predicated on the idea that, even in the unlikely event that he is in the game with the Nets' current wealth of offensive talent, the playcall would be "MarShon Brooks iso." Brooks, for all his scoring talent, is fighting for a reserve spot on a roster with an entrenched starting lineup. There are at least seven players at this point more likely to see the floor in crunch time. If Coach Johnson does fall into the folly of pushing late-game isolations -- he did say that he "liked the shot" -- MarShon will not be the go-to scorer.

Despite the final score, some additional scattered thoughts:

  • Avery Johnson said before the game that two of his major keys were the team's pick-and-roll and transition defense. Transition defense seemed to work: the Knicks got zero fast-break points all game (though there was one stretch in the second quarter where Ronnie Brewer plucked the ball from MarShon Brooks' fingers and got a layup on the break). The pick-and-roll defense (without checking the numbers) seemed much stronger when the starters were on the floor, but fell apart once the reserves came in.

  • Nassau Coliseum is not a basketball arena. Aside from clocking in at roughly seven degrees, the arena's built into the ground in the middle of a parking lot miles from a metropolis. From the outside, it resembles a museum dedicated to alien landings that hasn't been open on thirty years. It's not difficult to understand why the Islanders are moving to Brooklyn.

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