Despite the 117-111 loss to the Knicks last night, the good news is the beleaguered Nets bench stepped up their game a bit last night.
Derrick Favors had 12 points before fouling out in 19 minutes. Stefan Bondy captured an interesting exchanged between he and Avery Johnson:
“He tweaked his ankle a little bit, and I was just asking him if he’s injured of or is it hurting. He said it’s hurting. We talked to (the trainer), I said, okay, strapped up his sneaker a little bit harder,” Johnson said. “I was glad he fought through it – a 19-year-old rookie.”
What Favors did next – on the very next possession, in fact – was an alley-oop jam to highlight a 30-13 run for the Nets to start the second half.
Al Iannazzone talks to Devin Harris who was thrilled by the bench’s performance:
“It’s great to see the bench playing well,’’ said Devin Harris, who sat the final 19:56 because Jordan Farmar went off and scored 21 points in that time. “The guys came and gave us great energy that third quarter. Jordan came in and gave us a tremendous effort. Terrence Williams found himself in the second half. Damion James came in and gave us quality minutes. We had a Derrick Favors sighting.”
Speaking of Farmar, our old friend Sebastian Pruiti does a little breakdown on a gamble the PG took down the stretch that resulted in the game clinching three for Toney Douglas.
Still, it’s hard to beat up Farmar too much for his performance last night, and while Favors managed to pick up three fouls in his first two minutes, it was good to see that athleticism people talked so much about it. The biggest problem for this team offensively still seems to be the lack of gel amongst the starting five. I don’t know what’s going to improve that except time and patience.
