Nets fall to 3-2 in the preseason. Tonight’s contest featured some positives, some negatives and lots of shaky defense. The game was close back and forth throughout, and would have probably been a lot closer had it actually been a regular season game. Again, #WeTalkinBoutPreseason.
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Deron Williams: Four assists doesn’t do his distributing tonight justice. Was passing the ball first all night and was able to knock down some big shots. Found a lot of open looking from setting picks and posting up down low. He was great off the ball. Didn’t shoot very well from behind the arc, and seemed a pretty sloppy on fast breaks. Grade: B+
Joe Johnson: Started off slow, but got hot in the 4th quarter. Saw some of the good parts of Iso-Joe, and has seemed to develop some good chemistry from D-Will. Grade: B+
Gerald Wallace: Not the insane Crash we’ve seen all preseason, but a solid offensive performance nonetheless. Dorrell Wright got the better of his match-up, however, and didn’t win the rebound battle. Grade: C
Kris Humphries: Poor shooting. Very poor shooting. Rimmed out a lot of jumpers, but didn’t get a lot of minutes. Victim of preseason rotation. Grade: D
Brook Lopez: Love what I’ve seen out of Lopez this preseason. Scoring all over the court, nailed some nice hook shots and backdown jumpers. Defensively, he still isn’t where we’d like him to be, but it’s going to be a work in progress. Rebounding numbers were just fine, and it’s great to see him actually go after those balls. What he brings to the Nets offense, especially after a season with Shelden Williams, is just staggering. Grade: B+
Andray Blatche: Really impressing me so far. Tonight, he wasn’t as on point as in previous games, but still is a great presence down low and has the ability to score anywhere in and around the paint. He missed some shots he should have made. Grade: C+
C.J. Watson: Played a lot off-the-ball tonight. At point, he was pretty frustrating. Too slow in transition, and didn’t take open shots. Missed a lot of opportunities on the weak side. I want to see him shoot more, especially when he is open around the arc. Grade: C-
MarShon Brooks: Not sure what took him so long to come off the bench. He could be hurt, he could not know the rotations, he could just be a victim of an Avery experiment. However, when he was on the court, he was vintage MarShon, making some nice jumpers and taking good shots. Grade: B+
