The Nets saw yet another double-digit post-halftime lead crumble, falling apart in the third quarter before taking the lead back in the final frame. In a bizarre final minute, the Nets & Celtics traded intentional free throws, and the Celtics missed enough to give Brooklyn, now 5-2, the victory. We’ll have more thoughts tomorrow, and here’s your Net Worth:
Went down hard in the third quarter, but came up to hit a three about a minute later. Played a sublime first half controlling the court — the offense was easily more fluid with him on the court. Unfortunately, Williams’ second half was as frustrating as his first was excellent. While there were some solid plays, particularly the curls to the corner and some really good breakdowns off the dribble, oftentimes he seemed to eschew options and call his own number without the space needed to make that a consistently solid option.
Seemed to play well in tandem with Williams but struggled with his shot throughout. Mitigated an invisible third quarter by hitting some key shots and free throws in the fourth, though did get some significant tunnel vision after hitting the two big ones to extend the game from 87-all to 91-87. He and Deron traded troubling late isolations, but the Nets somehow escaped.
Sighed his way into another double-double and sat most of crunch time over Reggie Evans. Interesting choice, but it worked.
He’s really scoring as efficiently as ever. Part of it is that Lopez is just bigger, taller, and longer than his competition — he holds the ball so high and can get such good space on his shot that it’s not so much a matter of defense, it’s a matter of getting the right rotation on the ball. And yeah, he’s slow, and like most games this season he got a couple of blocks and had some defensive breakdowns. But he can score, he’s played this season with purpose, and he understands the rotations. I’ll take that any day.
The Blatchenigma.
Finally got some playing time! Took two floaters in his first two attempts, missing the first and getting an and-one on the second. Limited minutes, which is fine. In time.
Josh Childress got what we call an “eight trillion” today: he played eight minutes and did absolutely nothing of statistical consequence. No shot attempts, rebounds, steals, assists, blocks, points, turnovers, or fouls. Zilch. Hard to top, frankly.
Played over Kris Humphries in crunch time. If you judge this game based on what you’d expect Reggie Evans to do, he was fine, but you can’t rely on him for anything beyond those expectations.
