Does Brook Lopez foul too much?

The Editorial page of the Star-Ledger bemoans the Nets plans to move to Brooklyn: You’d think it would be easy to say goodbye to a team with fewer victories than Congressional Republicans. But chances are the Nets are going to get good and sexy before they leave — like the spouse who loses the weight, gets the makeover, then runs off with, well, a Russian millionaire.

Bleacher Report looks at the five most disappointing teams of the 2009-10 season.

Some more reasons to get excited about Evan Turner.

Mark Ginocchio

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Advanced Box Score | Red94.net | The Dream Shake

Luis Scola scored 44 points against the Nets last night.  Let me repeat that, Luis Scola scored 44 points against the Nets last night.  Despite Chuck Hayes starting the game at center, he only played 10 minutes, and when Hayes wasn't on the court Scola is the player who slid to the 5 spot.  With Brook Lopez struggling with foul trouble throughout the game (only played 37 minutes and had to sit during a key 2 minute chunk in the fourth quarter when the Rockets went on a 7-0 run), Scola was able to out-work the rest of the Nets undersized frontcourt and get his baskets in the lane.  As he started to hit his shots, and as he started to see the ball go in, he got more comfortable.  He ended up taking 25 shots, and making 20 of them.  I don't think a Net has made 20 shots in a game all year.  Lopez's foul trouble effected Scola on the other side of the court.  When Brook was in, they worked it inside against the undersized Scola and it was effective.  Pounding it inside against Scola probably would have been able to wear him down and possibly got him in foul trouble, limiting his chances.

Even with Scola going off for 44, the Nets were still in this ballgame late.  After Jarvis Hayes hit a three pointer with about nine minutes left, the Rockets lead was cut down to two points, 87-85.  The next three possessions for the Nets were a bad shot, a turnover, and another bad shot, and just like that the Rockets' lead stretched out 9 points, 94-85.  Some of it had to do with Brook being out (he re-entered the game after this run and instantly got an easy bucket in the post), but this is starting to become a trend with the Nets.  They work to get a game close late against a solid team, and then when it comes down to a key possession, they just lose their mind.  Friday night in OKC, the Nets were down for with about a minute thirty left.  Jarvis Hayes rushed a three and didn't even hit the rim.  Last night, the lead was two points and Terrence Williams made a bad pass that I haven't seen him make since his struggles early in the year.  I don't know if it is the pressure of trying to get past this record, but the Nets just lose their mind when the game is close late.

Speaking of Terrence Williams, the start Terrence Williams movement is gaining some steam (it is almost as popular as the trade Terrence Williams movement from the early part of the year), and I have to agree with the guys calling for T-Wiill to start.  However, you can see why Kiki is having him come off the bench.  For one, if T-Will starts and they bring in Trenton Hassell off the bench, the Nets second unit weakens tremendously.  The Nets' second unit gets killed as it is, you take Terrence Williams out of that second unit, and it is even worse.  Also, there are guys in this league who are good in limited amount of minutes.  Maybe Kiki and the coaching staff believe that Terrence Williams at 35-40 minutes isn't as effective as Terrence Williams at 25-30 minutes.  They have evidence of this.  Remember the beginning of the year, where Terrence was playing 40 minutes a game?  He wasn't nearly as effective as he is now.  Some more thoughts after the jump.

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Sebastian Pruiti

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Before we get to the recap, just wanted to apologize for not getting a game preview up.  Anyone in the tri-state area knows how crazy the weather is right now, and I actually just got my power back in the middle of the third quarter.  Kind of wish the power didn't come on when it did, as the Nets lost to the Rockets, 116 to 108.

• It was the Luis Scola show.  With Brook battling foul trouble all night (his 5th foul was very questionable), Scola was able to get a few easy buckets, which lead him to get hot, and then all of a sudden he had 44 points on 20-25 shooting.
• Even with Scola going absolutely nuts, the Nets were in this game late, down 2 in the middle of the fourth.  Devin missed a forced jumper, Terrence Williams turned the ball over, and all of a sudden the lead grew to 9.  That was the game.
• Courtney Lee looked like he finally shook the hand injury, and he shot 10-14 from the field (including 3-4 from three) for 24 points.
• Brook Lopez and Devin Harris also contributed putting in 20+ with good shooting percentage.
• Terrence Williams put up 14 points and Jarvis Hayes scored 16, though 9 of Hayes' points came late in the 4th as the Nets were trying to claw back in it.
• As you can tell from the score the Nets played well offensively, but you can't let a guy like Scola put up 44 and let the Rockets' real scorers (Kevin Martin, Aaron Brooks) still get theirs.  Martin had 20 and Brooks put up 18.

Sebastian Pruiti

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AP Photo/Alonzo Adams

Daily Thunder - Welcome to Loud City - Hoopdata Box Scores -

NBA basketball can be funny sometimes. Immediately after Wednesday's 9-point loss to the Dallas Mavericks, I bemoaned the fact that the Nets had played a relatively good game that they deserved to win. Two days later, the Nets got thoroughly outplayed by the Oklahoma City Thunder for about 45 minutes, but a short burst in the game's final minutes turned this into a two-point, 104-102 loss for the Nets. In this case, the final score was absolutely deceiving. The Nets could have lost this game by 20 and I wouldn't have been the least bit shocked based on the way things were unfolding.

I hope it doesn't make me too much of a grump that I can't get all that excited by the final score of this game and say - "well, they gave the Thunder a scare." Or, "the Nets got mediocre to bad performances from Brook Lopez and Courtney Lee, but they were still in a spot where they could have stolen one."

To start things off on a positive, I was very impressed with the Nets role players tonight. In the first half, Keyon Dooling and Terrence Williams each came off the bench to save the Nets from letting this game get away from them before it started. Dooling had 12 of his 15 points in the first half while Terrence Williams continued his impressive run of all-around games in March with 14 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists. His shooting is still atrocious. One three attempt wide open in the corner in the second quarter missed the rim and the backboard entirely.  But you have to be happy with how TWill is finally starting to mature as a player.

In the fourth quarter, the starters got a boost from Jarvis Hayes, who single-handedly pulled the Nets within four after sinking back-to-back treys with about two minutes left in the game. Still, it was a shot-putted jumper by Hayes with about a minute left that has epitomized this Nets season. With an opportunity to cut OKC's lead to two or less, the Nets looked disoriented on offense. A pass from under the basket by Devin Harris was almost picked off but skipped its way over to Williams, who then moved it quickly to a heavily-guarded Hayes at the top of the key. With about three seconds left on the shot clock, Hayes looked like he was trying to force contact and heaved it. If this was baseball, it probably would have been good for a double in the gap, but since this is basketball, the shot missed badly and capped off just a terrible possession for the Nets in crunch time, something the franchise should trademark along with "Brooklyn Nets" before the end of the season.

I saw a lot more bad than good from the Nets in this game and it really would have been a shocking collapse for a very talented Thunder team if they lost this thing in the final two minutes. J.G. Marking at the Daily Thunder blog says it all:

Boy am I glad this one is over and there’s a “W” in the good column instead of a “I want to bash my head in because I can’t believe they lost” in the bad column (what, there was a couple “L’s” in that sentence). This was one of the most anticlimactic games I can remember that I was waiting for the Thunder to blow open and they never did, letting the Nets hang around…and hang around…and then absolutely frighten me in the last few minutes.

The first quarter especially demonstrated the talent discrepancy between these two teams. The Nets continued their dangerous trend of getting run off the floor early because of poor transition defense. And as I mentioned in a post earlier this week, you can't even blame the presence of Yi on this one. Josh Boone was Yi-esque, frequently losing track of Jeff Green early on, who was in double-digits in points by the end of the first quarter. The Nets also didn't help their cause by making a plethora of lazy passes that led to transition baskets. By the end of the first quarter the Nets had 6 turnovers and the Thunder had 13 fast break points. Considering the finally tally for both these statistics by the end of the game was 12 TOs and 20 fast break points, and you can see just how bad the Nets were early.

Meanwhile, the Nets big three were up and down and mostly down. Devin Harris had a solid night statistically with 19 points and 8 assists, but it took him 20 shots to get there. I loved how he picked up the offensive foul on Russell Westbrook with less than a minute to go in the game, but Harris didn't do that much to get himself to the free throw line, only attempting three FTs for the game. Before the start of the fourth quarter, Mike Fratello did a great telestrator breakdown of how Lopez was allowing OKC's defenders to move him out of the post and essentially turn him into a jump shooter. And this wasn't much ado about nothing either as Lopez attempted five of his 14 FGs from outside of 17-feet, only hitting one. A lot of his other shots were short range jumpers and hooks below the foul line. Considering Lopez was up against Nenad Krstic, who I think is fair to say is a tad soft on the interior, Lopez should have fought through some of OKC's defensive formations to stay closer to the hoop. This is his third mediocre game in a row, and I wondering if the strain of the full NBA season is finally starting to affect Lopez who was a bit more coddled playing-time wise by Lawrence Frank last year.

As for Courtney Lee, early on, I was curious to see how his banged up hand was going to affect his jumper. Looking at his final shooting line, 2-9, 6 points, no field goals until there was about 4 minutes left in the game, I guess you could conclude that the injury affected him, but from the naked eye, I just saw Lee force a lot of jumpers that he shouldn't have been taking. He did get one open look from three towards the end of the first quarter that he missed, but otherwise I think I need to see more from Lee before I can determine whether it's the injury or his shot selection.

A few more thoughts after the jump:
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Mark Ginocchio

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The Nets made it interesting in the final minutes, but the Oklahoma City Thunder won a game that they led throughout, beating the Nets 104-102 in OKC tonight.

• The Nets got some solid offensive contributions from their bench tonight, with Jarvis Hayes sinking 16 points on 6-13 shooting, Keyon Dooling  with 15 points on 4-5 shooting and Terrence Williams with 14 points (and 6 rebounds) on 6-13 shooting.
• Devin Harris had a decent game offensively, scoring 19 points and collecting 8 assists, but was 8-20 from the field.
• OKC was led by Kevin Durant, who finished with 32 points and 11 rebounds. He was seconded by Jeff Green who had 27 points (20 in first half), 6 rebounds and 3 steals.
• Courtney Lee, battling a wrist injury, was struggling all night, scoring 6 points on 2-9 shooting.
• The Nets had 6 turnovers in the first quarter, but finished with 12 for the game.

Mark Ginocchio

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Not a lot of time to get this up, so quickly to the lineups...

Devin Harris vs. Russell Westbrook

Watching these two guys go at it is going to be fun.  Westbrook uses his athleticism and Devin his speed, but both guys are fantastic at getting into the paint, and both are a little more scoring oriented than your average point guard.  We could find ourselves in a situation where both guys just start going at each other trying to one-up the other.  That could get very entertaining.

Advantage:  Push

Courtney Lee vs. Thabo Sefolosha

According to Al Iannazzone Courtney Lee has a sprained thumb on his shooting hand, but he won't be missing any time. That is probably what contributed to his first bad game in quite a while (4-12 shooting).  Tonight, he is going against a pretty good defender in Thabo, but he won't produce much in terms of scoring.

Advantage:  Push

Trenton Hassell vs. Kevin Durant

If it was any other team, I'd be pushing to see Terrence Williams starting here, but Hassell is a better defender and that is what you need when going against Kevin Durant.  Durant is going to make shots, and he is going to get points in transition, so if you want to have a chance against the Thunder, you are going to have to keep him off of the foul line.  If the Nets do that, they have a chance.

Advantage:  Kevin Durant

Kris Humphries vs. Jeff Green

Boone is a game time decision with a sprained back, so you will probably see Kris Humphries starting (and if not, he will be getting a bulk of the minutes).  Green is a guy who can score inside and out, but I think Humphries will be able to handle him, as he did a fantastic job of defending Dirk last time.  Humphries needs to contribute on the offensive end though, he is creating too many wasted possessions with his missed mid-range jumpers as of late.

Advantage:  Jeff Green

Brook Lopez vs. Nenad Krstic

Brook Lopez struggled defending Nenad last time out, as he floated on the outside and knocked down a few jumpers.  I think the Nets should counter by going inside and trying to get Krstic in foul trouble early.

Advantage:  Brook Lopez

Sebastian Pruiti

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I don't know how many of you are familiar with Wayne Winston, but the man is one of the best sports analytics people in the business.  In fact until recently he was doing statistical analysis for the Dallas Mavericks.  Since he stopped doing his thing for the Mavericks, Winston published a book called Mathletics (where he breaks down advanced statistics for a few different sports) and he now runs a blog where he does his thing.  Recently, over at WayneWinston.com Winston posted his "Post All-Star Rankings."  It was interesting to see that according to Winston, the Nets haven't been the worst team in the NBA since the break.  Hell, they weren't even second worst.  The Nets ranked 23rd in Winston's rankings, with the Knicks ranking last (awesome).  Let's allow Winston to explain his rankings:

In the three weeks since the all star break here is a summary of how well each NBA team has played.  For example, the Magic have played 10.65 points better than average. The Magic have played 2.38 points better than average on offense and 8.26 points better than average on defense. Note the Nets have really improved and the Knicks are now the league’s worst team. Kudos to the unsung Bucks, who have played great. These numbers are adjusted for strength of schedule. Makes you think that  a Lakers-Cavs final series is not inevitable!

Now, let's look at the Nets specifically.  The Nets have an overall ranking of -4.12119, meaning they play about 4 points worse than their opponents.  Breaking it down to both sides of the ball, the Nets have been playing -4.29861 on the offensive end, but on the flip side, the Nets have been better than their opponents on defense.  Now it hasn't been by much (only 0.17742 better), but with the way the Nets played defense, any kind of better is good news.

If you have been watching Nets games, you know the Nets have been playing better since the break.  With Brook Lopez continuing to dominate (up until the last two games where he faced real tough defenders), Courtney Lee finally breaking out of his funk, Terrence Williams starting to get it, and Devin Harris returning to last year's all-star form.  I have to echo Mark's sentiments from yesterday:

So you tell me: can the worst team in basketball honestly be expected to accomplish all this in a given night? After being legitimately angry with this team and organization for the better part of the last four months, I can honestly say I now sympathize with these guys. Between the young talent of guys like Lopez, Harris, Williams and Lee, and some veteran good-guys like Keyon Dooling, Hayes and Hassell, these Nets need to find a way to get out of this discussion as being among the worst ever, because they just don’t belong there.

This team is just not the worst team in NBA history.  They don't do things that bad teams do (most of the time), and they go out and compete.  Hopefully they can come away with 3 more wins.

Sebastian Pruiti

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Sebastian was talking Brooklyn over at the Daily Dime last night.

Our good friend Henry Abbott at the TrueHoop mothership asks what Brooklyn native and renown Knicks fan Spike Lee is going to do once the Nets officially move in.

Al Iannazzone depicts the daily beat writers struggle when talking about Bruce Ratner's victory lap yesterday: As a colleague said to me last night, it’s wrong that Ratner goes on these shows when these major things happen and doesn’t talk to the regular guys covering the team. We haven’t spoken to Ratner since last April.

Terrence Williams is ready for the grown-up table: Maturity is a word mentioned often. Vandeweghe said Williams’ "maturity level is rising." Even Williams admits he’s grown up some and is concentrating on playing.

Here's some video of CEO Brett Yormark on Fox Business News yesterday:

Mark Ginocchio

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Two Man Game - Mavs Moneyball - Hoopdata Box Scores

After last night, I refuse to believe the 2009-10 New Jersey Nets are the worst team in NBA history. Their final record may very well suggest otherwise and the schedule-makers certainly haven't done them any favors as 12 of their final 17 games are against teams in the thick of their respective playoff races. But the Nets should be better than a 7-win team right now. Forget should. The Nets are better than a 7-win team right now.

If you want physical proof of why I believe this, look no further than the first quarter between the Nets and Dallas Mavericks last night. Yeah, you could say that the Mavs were caught napping and were taking the Nets lightly, and went on to eventually take care of business in their 96-87 victory, but the worst team in basketball history doesn't come out on the road against a team that has just won 12 straight games, and knock them silly en route to a 33-19 first quarter. The Mavs missed some open shots in the period, but the Nets also took it to them, by being aggressive in the pain. During a two minute stretch where the Nets grew their lead from 9-1 to 17-3, Jersey made five consecutive field goals off layups and dunks.

Granted, NBA games are 48 minutes long, and no championship has ever been crowned after just one quarter of play. In the second and third quarters, the Mavericks demonstrated why their currently the second-best team in the Western Conference (pushing the draft pick of theirs we own, further back in the first round). Dallas tightened their interior D, took Brook Lopez completely out of the game (all 10 of his points were in the first quarter), and they methodically picked the Nets apart over the game's next 24 minutes, culminating with an atrocious third quarter where the Nets shot 19 percent and were outscored 31-15. Brook Lopez epitomized the Nets frustration, when on the final play of the quarter, who caught a pass on a pick-and-roll and proceeded to get stuffed by the rim and turning the ball over. He then, stupidly, grabbed Erick Dampier to pick up his fifth foul, taking Lopez out of the game until there was about two minutes left in the fourth quarter. Lopez was so bad after the first quarter, it was the first time I believe this season where I wasn't screaming at the television for the Nets to feed him the ball more down the stretch.

But even with the second and third quarter performance, the Nets showed me something tonight. Earlier in this season, when I honestly though the Nets were the worst team in NBA history (think back to those back-to-back road thrashings by Golden State and Utah and tell me you'd disagree), the Nets would have turned off the switch for good after that third quarter, maybe make a small run with about 5-6 minutes left to cut the Dallas lead to single-digits, before totally disappearing into the night and losing by 15 or 20 points. But the Nets hung in there, starting with Jarvis Hayes, who drilled a long two and two threes to open up the scoring for the Nets. Terrence Williams (18 points, 13 rebounds) came up huge, early and late in the fourth, as the Nets closed with two points. t the 6:20 mark in the fourth, TWill outleaped Shawn Marion to grab an offensive rebound. A few minutes later, a layup where Williams dribbled behind his back to get into the paint, cut the Dallas lead to 90-87.

The Nets were even playing better defense. Kris Humphries and Josh Boone both played a solid game defensive on Dirk Nowitzki, who had so many of his shots challenged early, that even when he started getting open looks down the stretch, he missed, en route to a 3-16 night. But two plays stand out to me for the Nets defensively. At the 5:16 mark and Caron Butler looking to take over for Dallas, Butler was trying to back down TWill in the post. After making a spin move to get around him, he was met by Kris Humprhies who disrupted the shot, causing Butler to miss the layup. About two minutes later, Jarvis Hayes was actually playing suffocating man defense on Dirk, who was trying to get space for his historically automatic elbow jumper. As Jarvis kept his body on Dirk, not allowing him his customary push off for the jumper, Courtney Lee blindsided Nowitzki and stole the ball, leading to a fast break. But a three pointer by old friend Jason Kidd, his fifth of the game, put Dallas up by 5, where they never looked back.

So you tell me: can the worst team in basketball honestly be expected to accomplish all this in a given night? After being legitimately angry with this team and organization for the better part of the last four months, I can honestly say I now sympathize with these guys. Between the young talent of guys like Lopez, Harris, Williams and Lee, and some veteran good-guys like Keyon Dooling, Hayes and Hassell, these Nets need to find a way to get out of this discussion as being among the worst ever, because they just don't belong there.

A few more thoughts after the jump:

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Mark Ginocchio

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To commemorate today's groundbreaking in Brooklyn, Sebastian will be liveblogging the ceremony/press conference, so at around 1:30, be sure to check back here frequently for discussion.

Keyon Dooling on Jason Kidd's performance last night: “He’s got the Fountain of Youth,” Nets guard Keyon Dooling said. “I’m probably going to follow him around this summer, put a private investigating team on him so I can find the fountain of youth as well.”

Before the game, Jason Kidd said he believes the Nets will turn things around because of Mikhail Prokhorov.

Kidd is also happy for the Nets Brooklyn move, according to Al Iannazzone: "They were going to be persistent and they were going to work to get it to Brooklyn," Kidd said. "I’m happy they finally got into Brooklyn. Maybe they’re unhappy they’re a little bit behind schedule. But they finally got that, which is a huge move and a huge piece. I don’t know how long it’s going to take to build, but it’s good."

Brett Yormark on WFAN this morning.

Rob Peterson at NBA Fanhouse talks to Mark Cuban about the Nets fortunes: "I said this to Kiki and Rod both," Cuban said about Nets coach and GM Kiki Vandeweghe and team president Rod Thorn, "there's about a month, five weeks left in the regular season. In five weeks, them and the Knicks become the darlings of the NBA. They're all anybody's going to be talking about in regard to free agency.

Look who's one of the richest men in the world.

Kobe Bryant has more game winning shots this seaso than the Nets have wins.

Mark Ginocchio

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The Nets were literally scorching to start the game, leading 33-19 after the first quarter, but the Mavericks methodically picked them apart over the second and third quarters, and were able to withstand a late Nets surge, to beat New Jersey 96-87 in Dallas tonight.

• The Nets were shooting close to 53 percent at halftime and held on to an 8-point lead against a Dallas team that had won 12 in a row entering tonight. But 19 percent shooting in the third, where they were outscored by the Mavericks 31-15, put New Jersey in a deep hole entering the fourth that they could never climb out of, despite getting as close as two points down the home stretch.
• Terrence Williams keeps topping himself in the month of March, putting together another career game with 18 points, 13 rebounds, 3 assists, a steal and a blocked shot.
• Devin Harris had a solid night offensively against his old team with 21 points and 7 assists on 7-14 shooting, but turned the ball over 6 times.
• Kris Humphries had 13 points and 8 rebounds off the bench, while playing some solid defense against former teammate Dirk Nowitzki. Dirk had a particularly awful night, finishing with 12 points on 3-16 shooting.
• Jason Kidd finished with 20 points and 9 assists, and was 5-8 from three-point land.
• Brook Lopez and Courtney Lee each had a quiet night, finishing with 10 points each. Lopez picked up his 5th foul at the end of the third, and wasn't seen again until about 2 minutes left in the game.

Mark Ginocchio

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