Before we get to the game tonight, I just wanted to talk about Brook Lopez and the All-Star game.  Al Iannazzone's post from today is what got me thinking about it.  There, he has an awesome quote:

Brook Lopez could care less that he didn’t make the All-Star team. He was sleeping when TNT announced the reserves last night and he also watched Willy Wonka. We asked which one?

“The good one,” Lopez said.

That means the first one. Not the Johnny Depp disappointment.

“Gene Wilder is tough to beat,” Lopez said.

If Brook isn't mad about it, us fans shouldn't really be either.  I mean did he deserve it?  You can argue it, I mean All-Star teams usually take two centers and I think the the fight for the "second best center in the East" is a good one.  You have a lot of candidates.  You have Joakim Noah, David Lee, Al Horford, and Brook Lopez.  Horford is probably the best defender and he plays on the best team, so I can see why the coaches took him.  The comforting thing about this is that Brook is only 21 and still developing.  If all goes according to plan, he should have plenty of All-Star games under his belt.

As for tonight, the Nets continue their pursuit of finishing the season over .500 against the Wizards.  A team that you can argue is worse off than the Nets.  You are going to see my projected lineup looks an awful lot like the one that fans don't want to see.  Here is my take on it.  Kiki is going to stick with his guys (at least in terms of starting), but if they struggle he is going to have a quick hook.  Just my opinion though, so we will see what happens.  Anyway, onto the lineups!

Keyon Dooling vs. Randy Foye

You know what, I think it is smart to keep Harris out, especially now that Keyon got things flowing.  As Mark said earlier, you got to go with the hot hand and Dooling is it.  Foye in his own right is playing pretty good right now.  But I think Dooling's defense will be able to shut him down.

Advantage:  Keyon Dooling

Courtney Lee vs. Mike Miller

Mike Miller has returned from injury and is playing pretty well.  Lee is returning as well, coming off getting his wisdom teeth removed.  Lee, despite all the talk about how much he sucks, has been playing well (though not to the level people expected him to at the start of the season), and most importantly, he has been aggressive.  All that being said, I think Kiki will have a short hook with him.

Advantage:  Push

Chris Douglas-Roberts vs. Caron Butler

Do I think CDR is intentionally not shooting?  I don't know, it is tough to say, I mean his change of style of play is so drastic, that it could be possible.  What could also be possible is that he just misunderstands Kiki's play through the bigs mantra, that he is doing it to a fault.  Maybe the win gets him going, and he will return to his aggressive self.

Advantage:  Push

Yi vs. Antawan Jamison

When I was talking about a quick hook, I was talking about Yi specifically. He has a tough matchup in Jamison, so if he isn't hitting his shot, expect to see Kris Humphries in real quick...

Advantage:  Antawan Jamison

Brook Lopez vs. Brenden Haywood

If you remember the last time these two played, Haywood did an effective job of shutting Brook down.  He was able to use his strength to push Brook out of his post position.  It is going to be fun to watch these two go at it again.

Advantage:  Brook Lopez

Sebastian Pruiti

Tweet

Today's guest is Kyle Weidie from the superstar TrueHoop Wizards site, Truth About It. Kyle talks about one of the few franchises that may be in even worse shape currently than the the Nets.

NAS:  What are your thoughts on the trade rumors involving Caron Butler? The Nets seemed to be backing away from trading Devin Harris now, but would you be interested in a Harris for Butler swap?

I haven't been particularly fond of Caron's play this season. He has not adjusted his offense game to be more team-oriented in order to fit into Flip Saunders' system. His assists per 36 minutes is down to a measly 2.0; it stood 4.4 and 4.0 in '07-08 and '08-09 respectively. Even in '06-07, the last time Gilbert Arenas was really on the court before this season, Caron managed 3.4 assists/36.His latest transgression, ignoring the play Flip Saunders called with the Wizards down one point with 6.7 seconds left against Dallas, clearly outlines that Butler is playing selfishly and that two All-Star appearances has led him to egotistically believe that he's a number one option, superstar player when he is not.As far as I'm concerned, his time in DC has passed because he has vastly strayed from the reason he was given the nickname "Tuff Juice" in the first place. I don't want to completely trash Butler. He's a good guy, a decent locker room presence, and a great community man. But it just ain't working out.That being said, I'd be completely down for exploring a Harris for Butler trade. Why not invest in a decent young PG for the future? Problem is, I'm not sure the Wizards' brass wants to put themselves in the position to take on two more years of contract that they'd be getting back in Harris.

Why do you guys want to get rid of him anyway?

You forgot to mention an ownership in transition .... limbo. Basically, there is no direction. I say they try to get value in return for their assets, but without completely blowing up the house with a fire sale. Sounds neither easy nor likely. Rebuilding is so painful, so enduring, so unpredictable ... and something Wizards fans don't deserve. They really need to find a way to remain competitive while rebuilding ... so, not like the Nets. But to do that, you need luck in the draft. After Kwame Brown, I'm not sure the Wizards franchise will ever have luck in the draft again.

I guess you'd have to put a number after "top" to really get the convo started. At 33-years old, his ability is obviously on its down-slope. That being said, Jamison is still putting up incredible numbers. He rebounds like a man and his offensive trickery (and the fact that he doesn't play in the paint much) lends itself to more sustainability as he ages. Currently, Jamison is unquestionably a top 40 NBA player ... maybe even top 30.

Mark Ginocchio

Tweet

After watching the Nets get pulverized into a pile of jelly during their West Coast road trip last week, Wednesday’s night victory against the Clippers has made me a bit greedy.

The next three games for the Nets are all against struggling Eastern Conference teams –Washington Wizards, Philadelphia 76ers and Detroit Pistons. Unless this organization really doesn’t give a hoot if they set the record for most losses in a season – and they should, because as a fan, I want nothing to do with this record, and the players clearly don’t either – than Kiki Vandeweghe needs to coach these games to win.

By “coaching to win,” I mean Kiki needs to follow the successful blueprint carried out on Wednesday night, when the Nets played five guys for the last half of the fourth who were basically, the “hot hands.” Their age, experience and contract value was irrelevant.

... MORE →

Mark Ginocchio

Tweet

I just wanted to post a quick reaction to something that caught my eye in last night's mailbag from Dave D'Alessandro. In a response to one question, where a reader asks if Chris Douglas-Roberts could be an effective sixth man, Dave D. suggests that CDR's recent struggles and lack of aggression may not be the result of a concerted effort by the coaches to keep him from shooting (as some fans keep suggesting with this "Yiki" nonsense), but rather some kind of silly little boycott CDR is trying to orchestrate on the court:

But it’s pretty obvious to me that he is playing to prove that they need him -- not being aggressive, not looking for shots, going through the motions -- and failing badly. That’s why I’d bench him.

If this is true - and I have to admit, while observing CDR's rampant immaturity/arrogance via Twitter recently I honestly can't say I doubt D'Alessandro's claims here - then that is simply one of the stupidest things a player of CDR's caliber has ever done.

The "prove my teammates need me by not shooting" strategy may have been most famously employed by Kobe Bryant in Game 7 against the Phoenix Suns in the 2006 playoffs. After scoring 23 points in the first half of the decisive game, Kobe apparently had had enough of teammates/fans/pundits/whoever suggesting he was too selfish with the ball, so he only took three shots for the rest of the game and made some cryptic comments about trying to get "everybody involved" in the second half.

I guess CDR deserves some credit for seemingly pulling a stunt like this during meaningless games in a 4-40 season, rather than a decisive playoff game. However, it is still foolish and potentially career threatening for a guy who has otherwise proven zip in his NBA career. Consider when Kobe pulled this off, he had already won three championships (with Shaq, natch) and was considered by many to be one of the league's most prolific scorers and defenders. Chris Douglas-Roberts is a guy who struggled to see any time his rookie season, is considered by many critics to be a one-dimensional player who can only score points at the rim and has never been known as anything special on the defensive end.

In other words? CDR, you're not Kobe Bryant and you're probably never going to be Kobe Bryant. So, knock it off.

Mark Ginocchio

Tweet

Henry Abbott from the TrueHoop mothership talks about Devin Harris' awful season, but then makes a comparison to another PG in Nets history who could never turn the team around - Stephon Marbury. This article has apparently rankled some Nets fans out there so let me quickly react and say, while there are many reasons to be down on Devin Harris this season (injury prone, can't shoot, no defense), the one thing I haven't heard anyone say about him that would make him Marbury-esque is that he's being too selfish. In fact just the opposite this season, where all reports from the beat writers suggest the guy is following the team's mantra of feeding the bigs down low to a fault. So I think Abbott's comparison is a little off the mark here, though I appreciate his ability to get people talking about it.

Al Iannazzone reports that the Nets are doing their due diligence by letting teams know they are willing to make a trade. Will it work?:  One source said they don’t expect the Nets to make a big trade before the deadline, but added there is still plenty of time and things can come together quickly.

CC Sabathia, Nets motivational speaker?:  "I was in Cleveland for a couple of years when we lost everybody," Sabathia said, referring to the 7-1/2 seasons he spent with the Indians. "So it's tough (at) times, but you just have to grind through and keep playing hard because these times will make you better."

Even WFAN radio man Chris Carrino is affected by the Nets poor play: “I will never complain about this job that I dreamed about doing since I was a little kid,” Carrino said. “But the thing I miss is really being able to dig down, get emotional about the game, get excited about the game, deliver big calls, get into important strategy.”

After his terrific performance Wednesday, the Nets were heaping praise on Kris Humphries at practice yesterday: "Kris is probably one of those guys who's talented enough to be a starting power forward in this league," Dooling said. "He just hasn't found that right situation yet and he's making the best of this situation."

As Dave D'Alessandro reports, maybe the Nets snapped themselves out of their funk on Wednesday because Keyon Dooling snapped himself out of his: “Over the last three weeks, I’ve fallen victim to the frustration — I let it get to me, I wasn’t lively, I wasn’t talking a lot,” Dooling said Thursday after the team’s practice session. “I had a talk with myself, and then I had a talk with Kiki. And we agreed that I just had to get back to who I am – being positive, being the guy who lightens up the room.

The Huffington Post (?) posted some video of TWill's dunks from Wednesday night. Classic reaction from one reader on the blog: No one cares you lowly intern. go work at espn.

A great edition of Dave D'Alessandro's mailbag. I'm going to touch on this in a bit.

Mark Ginocchio

Tweet

The Nets played the Clippers twice in a span of 8 days, and in my opinion, it is rare that when a team plays another twice in a short span that you see two different type of games, but that happened here.  So what was the difference?  We are going to look at some key differences between the game on the 18th (which the Nets lost pretty handily) and the game last night (where they won pretty handily).

Injuries

I am not talking about Courtney Lee or Devin Harris here, I am talking about the injuries the Clippers suffered.  Marcus Camby only played 7 minutes, and while Baron Davis played 29 minutes, he sat out a huge chunk of the third and fourth quarter, a time where the Nets usually blow their big lead.  I think the most important loss of the two was Marcus Camby.  Camby killed the Nets the first time out with 17 points, 14 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 2 steals.  What makes Camby so tough is that with Kaman in the game, he plays the 4, and that is such an obvious mismatch for any PF on the Nets roster.  Craig Smith is a nice player and he had a nice game (18 and 8), but he isn't the shot-blocking presence that Camby is, and I think that is part of the reason why the Nets were able to get into the lane.  As Kevin Arnovitz explains:

... MORE →

Sebastian Pruiti

Tweet

Hoopdata Box Score - Clipper Blog - Clips Nation - View from the Couch

What a strange feeling. I was watching the Nets, and a competitive basketball game broke out.

Actually, towards the end of the fourth quarter, the game wasn't competitive at all. But instead of the usual images of Brook Lopez and Chris Douglas-Roberts sitting dejectively on the bench with towels over their heads, Nets players were laughing at the sight of Terrence Williams and Kris Humphries throwing thunderous jams down on the Los Angeles Clippers, sealing a 103-87 win for New Jersey's fourth victory of the year.

Slow down there, 72-73 Sixers. Keep the champagne on ice. The Nets just need to play like that six more times this year. And there are some winnable games on the schedule the next two weeks. Not that anyone on a 4-40 team should be looking ahead.

It's actually pretty simple to explain why the Nets won last night. They were aggressive when they needed to be in taking the ball to the rim, scoring 44 points in the paint. They hit a number of big jump shots in the fourth quarter - they were 5-7 from beyond 15-feet in the game's final 12 minutes. They outrebounded the Clippers 42-38. But most importantly, they played defense. They played defense for all 48 minutes. Even when the Clippers made their run in the third quarter to tie, the Nets were never getting shredded on defense. They just weren't making their shots and it allowed LA to get back into it. The Nets  never gave up that big quarter like they've done in nearly every other game this season. The most the Clippers scored in a quarter was 23.

What ultimately impressed me the most about last night's performance, was the way this team took multiple punches but never fell to the mat. With both Devin Harris and Courtney Lee out, and Yi Jianlian spending most of the game on the bench in foul trouble, the rest of these guys could have easily phoned this game in and nobody would have thought anything of it - they've been phoning in games at full strength this year, why shouldn't then while they're injured?

Leading by 10 coming out of halftime, the Nets started the third quarter disastrously, committing three straight turnovers and then missing five consecutive shots. Their 51-41 lead was cut to 51-50 at the 7:30 mark of the quarter. This has typically been the point in the game where the Nets bend, then break. Instead, they ran their lead up to 10 again.

By the time the fourth quarter was rolling along, the Clippers had cut the Nets lead back to 5 again. That's when with about 7 minutes left, Keyon Dooling took over, making a driving layup, and then two jumpers from 17 and 18 feet.  The Nets were up 85-74, and the Clippers never made a serious run again.

Most of the accolades for the night are going to get to Kris Humphries, and deservedly so. The guy was just a beast on both ends on the floor last night, just showing a toughness and ferocity that even the "Muscle Devil" version of Yi just doesn't posses. Has any Net thrown his elbows around to protect a defensive rebound the way Humphries did with about 7 minutes to go in the second quarter? He was even able to draw a foul from DeAndre Jordan on the play. And you have to love Hump's effort to get back on defense at the 4:07 mark of the fourth quarter when Eric Gordon had a seemingly open path to the hoop on a breakaway. Humphries disrupted the shot, causing the miss.

And even better, Hump did the "little things" but still scored - netting 25 points on 10-14 shooting. I still don't like his propensity to take jumpers - he was 1-4 from beyond 15-feet last night, and he just seems so much better of a player when he keeps the ball inside, but you can't argue with his overall numbers.

Of course, if you're going to talk about the "little things," Terrence Williams' effort cannot be ignored. Quite frankly, I thought TWill was phenomenal last night, and the guy only scored seven points. The 9 rebounds, 8 assists and 2 steals, showed how Williams can help his teammates without putting the ball in the hoop. I think his defensive effort deserved applause as well. Kiki Vandeweghe had TWill guarding a number of players last night including Baron Davis and Eric Gordon - none of them went off on a crazy scoring night. About a month ago, TWill was useless to me, but I have to give credit to Kiki and Rod Thorn for sticking with this guy, because it's game like this where he finally starts to look like a lottery pick. This is exactly the kind of player skillet and talent-wise you want on a winning team. A guy who doesn't have to score for you to remember his performance.

A few more thoughts after the jump:

• ... MORE →

Mark Ginocchio

Tweet

If you want to see a master at work, check out Kevin Arnovitz's recap over at Clipperblog, complete with a terrific use of the "Benny Hill Theme."

Filip Bondy of the Daily News is celebrating the victory: Who'd have expected this, even against a slumping road team with an inglorious history? The Nets forged ahead by 16 points in the second quarter, grabbed their first halftime lead of 2010 and then steadied themselves after a scary third quarter.

Rod Thorn says he won't trade his lottery pick this season, so don't ask.

Al Iannazzone writes that Mikhail Prokhorov probably won't take over as owner until the end of the first quarter, aka, March.

Iannazzone also questions if Chris Doulgas-Roberts is wearing out his welcome?

Terrence Williams on last night's performance: “I think the game was indicative of the way I played in college — not really scoring the ball, not really needing to,” Williams said. “Just facilitate and pass the ball and still have some control over the game. I was just fortunate enough to do it tonight with the passing ability and defense — that’s what kept me on the floor.”

The Washington Post may have mistimed this column this morning - a piece talking about how the Nets may be the worst-ever.

Devin Harris talks about some of his favorite cars.

Mark Ginocchio

Tweet

The Nets, who were without Devin Harris and Courtney Lee, put together their best performance of the season, netting their fourth win of the season, and first of 2010 by smacking down the Clippers 103-87 at the Izod Center tonight.

• The Nets were actually laughing at the end of the game. Not laughing out of relief like after their season's first victory against the Bobcats in December. Laughing in a way that looked like they actually enjoyed playing basketball for the first time this season.
• Sebastian looks like a genius after his lineup post yesterday, as foul trouble for Yi Jianlian forced Kris Humphries into major action tonight who didn't disappoint. Hump had 25 points on 10-14 shooting and 8 rebounds. Yi, who was limited to 15 minutes, finished with 6 points and 5 fouls. Your move Kiki.
• Terrence Williams showed you don't need to score to help your team win. He had 7 points, but more importantly he had 9 rebounds and 8 assists and played a terrific defensive game.
• After a slow start shooting-wise, Keyon Dooling turned it on late with 18 points and 8 assists, including a number of big jumpers in the fourth quarter.
• Another nice game for Brook Lopez, who finished with 19 points, 9 rebounds and 3 blocks.
• Nets held the Clippers to 42 percent shooting, and outrebounded them 42-38. The Nets also had 10 steals during an all-around solid defensive effort.

Mark Ginocchio

Tweet

Before we get to the lineups, it was announced today that Brook Lopez was named to the Rookie/Sophmore game.  No real surprise there, but he was the only one.  Remember when we were talking about the Nets maybe having 4 guys compete in that game?

Some health stuff before we get to the lineups.  Devin is out with the wrist we all know that, but Courtney Lee is out with some wisdom tooth trouble and CDR is questionable with a stomach virus.  So the Nets are hurting again...now, onto the lineups.

Keyon Dooling vs. Baron Davis

This is another bigger guy that Keyon Dooling seems better than fit than Devin Harris to play against, just like Deron Williams on Saturday.  Deron only had 4 points and 8 assists.  I think Baron will be able to do a little bit better than that, but it is good to see our "defensive PG" starting today.

Advantage:  Baron Davis

Terrence Williams vs. Eric Gordon

Courtney Lee is out, so I expect to see Terrence Williams locking down the starting spot today (though we could see CDR at the 2 and Jarvis at the 3).  Terrence has been playing meaningful minutes as of late, and he has been taking advantage of them.  I just hope a starting spot doesn't bring back the Terrence of old.

Advantage:  Eric Gordon

Chris Douglas-Roberts vs. Rasual Butler

CDR and Rasul Butler are similar body types but not they do not have the same playing style.  Butler is a defensive stopper who is a very effective shooter from the outside.  Chris Douglas-Roberts isn't the best defender in the world, and he doesn't usually settle for jumpers.  He likes to attack the dribble and draw fouls.  It is going to be fun to watch these two guys go at it.

Advantage:  Push

Yi vs. Marcus Camby

Yi vs. Camby is another interesting clash of styles.  Camby is a force on the inside, while Yi likes to float around on the outside and attack the basket.  You could be seeing a lot of jumpers from Yi today because Camby probably isn't going to follow him on the outside unless he starts hitting some jumpers.

Advantage:  Push

Brook Lopez vs. Chris Kaman

We didn't speak about Chris Kaman before the last game because we thought he wasn't going to play.  But Chris Kaman is really good, and he deserves to be an all-star this year.  He leads all centers in scoring and what really makes him tough is that he can pull out his defender 15-20 feet and knock down the jumper consistently.  You know how Brook hits that jumper every once in a while?  Well, when Kaman does it, he knocks it down just about every time.  Brook had a good game against the Clippers though, so this is going to be real fun to watch.

Advantage:  Push

Sebastian Pruiti

Tweet

Do you read ClipperBlog? What, because you're not a fan of the Clippers you think you don't need to? Wrong. How about this, every morning, after checking what new riveting content we put up on Nets Are Scorching, head over to ClipperBlog to read some great analysis/writing by Kevin Arnovitz and D.J. Foster. Today, Foster joins us for BloggersTalk, to discuss the improved LA Clippers.

NAS: After already surpassing their win-total from last season, many Clippers players quoted saying they're setting their sights on .500 and beyond. How realistic of a goal is this? Is there a reason for Clippers fans to finally be optimistic about the direction this club is going in?

The Clippers are 9-1 when they start a lineup of Baron-Gordon-Butler-Camby-Kaman. If they can have that lineup healthy for an extended period of time, I think it's reasonable to predict they'll finish right around .500. Will that be good enough for the playoffs? Well, probably not. Outside of the Clippers, there are 11 other Western Conference teams who could very well finish above .500. So while playing even ball may be realistic, the playoffs really aren't.

As for the big picture outlook, I think there's plenty of reasons for Clippers fans to get excited about the future. Eric Gordon, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan are all 21 years old or younger. Chris Kaman is playing like a top 5 NBA center, and is just entering the prime of his career. Baron Davis is re-motivated and has proved that he at least has a few more years left in him. Their best players are all locked up, they have plenty of available cap room to add a big piece, and that future Minnesota draft pick looks tastier by the day.

An awful lot hinges on whether a marquee free agent would want to join the Clippers, but even if everyone turns down the Clippers this Summer, the situation still looks bright. Remember how the Clippers landed two of their key players in Marcus Camby and Rasual Butler? They stole them from luxury-cap weary teams by having plenty of available cap room. With the salary cap headed south, and the Clippers looking to be one of the few teams well below the luxury tax threshold, we could see a repeat situation.

Given the young talent and the positive financial situation, I'd say it's safe to be optimistic about the Clippers future.

NAS: I'm sure you've talked about this to death, but for the sake of Nets fans who are crossing their fingers for the #1 draft pick this June, how disappointed are you that Blake Griffin won't play his first NBA game until next season (knock on wood)?

It's obviously pretty disappointing, but by no means is it the end of the world. Were the Clippers going to win a championship once Griffin returned to the floor? Of course not. So as far as this season goes, it doesn't really hurt. All reports are that Blake will regain 100% of his strength and athleticism despite the injury, and Griffin himself has referred to the injury as "debut delaying" instead of "season ending". The Clippers may lose a few extra games this season, and will definitely lose some ticket sales, but the future is still intact. This injury could very well end up being insubstantial in the grand scheme of things, as weird as that sounds right now.

NAS: Is Chris Kaman an all-star?

No. This may surprise some people, but I think Marc Gasol has been the better player this year. He's been shooting 60.4% to Kaman's 50.5% from the field, has been a slightly better rebounder and shot blocker, has a higher PER rating, EFF rating and more Win-Shares. In virtually every meaningful stat outside of PPG, Marc Gasol has Chris Kaman bested. Add in that Gasol's Grizzlies have a better a record than the Clippers, and I have a hard time justifying Kaman getting selected over him.

There are the two "open" reserve spots that aren't bound by position that Kaman could fill, but he'd have to make it over the likes of Deron Williams (not happening), Carlos Boozer, Monta Ellis, Tyreke Evans and Zach Randolph. Just like the rest of his team, Kaman will likely be victimized by playing in the stacked Western Conference. He surely has been playing at an All-Star level, and if he gets selected he'll be very deserving, but I just don't see it happening.

NAS: Just for fun here... the Clippers have long been an NBA punchline for organizational ineptitude, but the Nets have been equally laughable for most of their existence outside of a few years in the 2000s. So with the Nets well on their way to having the worst record in NBA history, and the Clippers on the upswing, which organization is more deserving of the bad wrap?

Oh, it's the Clippers, and it's not even close. I'll try to avoid getting in a lengthy self-loathing pissing match, but the Clippers have had two winning seasons in twenty-six years. Think about that. Two winning seasons! Clippers fans talk about their lone playoff-series win in '05-'06 like an old washed up small-town quarterback talks about his game winning touchdown drive: That's our moment. That's the best thing the Clippers have ever done in 26 years; a lone playoff series win.

The Nets had Dr. J for goodness sakes! You got to watch one of the greatest point guards of all time in Jason Kidd play in his prime! I know it's bad right now, but come on! Am I supposed to feel bad for you Nets fans? You have a young star in Brook Lopez at a position where young stars don't come along very often. You have cap room. You have the chance at landing John Wall. You have a billionaire owner who can't wait to open up the checkbook. You'll have to do a lot worse than that to take over the ineptitude crown from the Clippers. Sorry.

Mark Ginocchio

Tweet

How much is some Hump schwag worth to you? How about $29.99 for this fabulous 2004 rare Fleer basketball card.

Mark Ginocchio

Tweet