It’s hard to judge the Nets on this game: Deron Williams, Shaun Livingston, and Alan Anderson all sat, Andray Blatche was active but didn’t play, the Nets had a weird incentive to lose if they care about the borough battle, and they relied mostly on Marcus Thornton and Mirza Teletovic to carry them through the fourth quarter, which is the basketball equivalent of throwing darts blindfolded at a board with numbers 3 and 0 on it.
If they won, they’d win, which is good. If they lost, they’d remain the fifth seed and put a damper in New York’s playoff chances, which is good. They played listless early (outside of Mason Plumlee), got Paul Pierce an historic milestone, allowed Jorge Gutierrez to shine in a featured role, and helped put another nail in New York’s coffin. What’s wrong with that?
Struggled throughout but few rival his short floater off the backboard.
Paul Pierce missed a shot and two free throws near the end of this game because if the Hawks win it put a damper in the Knicks playoff chances. That’s absolutely what happened and you can’t convince me of anything otherwise. Paul Pierce hates the Knicks so much he would mess with the sanctity of an NBA game in which he scored his 25,000th career point. I love this game so much.
Sure, they didn’t care about this game, but if you score your 25,000th career point, you should get an historical A+. Congrats on an awesome career, Paul Pierce.
Ended his night with a double-technical on him and Elton Brand, which might be the oldest technical foul in NBA history. Looks like the Kevin Garnett the Nets want in the playoffs for 25 minutes. Can he do it?
Enough antics to embarrass Pero Antic. Love his court vision still, and connected with Mirza Teletovic on one pretty alley-oop.
Hit the glass hard for a stretch in the fourth quarter and hit two threes to keep his streak of 3+ three-pointers against the Hawks alive.
Played with a ton of energy in a game and in moments where it seemed the Nets didn’t have any at all.
If the Nets wanted to lose tonight to help eliminate the Knicks from playoff contention, no one told Jorge Gutierrez, who opened the game with a steal and transition layup, hit another floater in the first quarter, managed the game well, drew what should have been ruled a charge on Jeff Teague with under two minutes left, and looked like he belonged on an NBA floor. What more can you ask for?
Hit a layup and only got embarrassed by his older brother on one crossover, which is fine, I guess.
