Check out the advanced box score from last night’s 109-89 victory here.
Some reactions:
- Holy starter’s plus-minus, Batman. Most of that was built up in the terrordome third quarter — you know, usually the Nets’ Achilles heel this season — when they outscored Philadelphia 35-14 on a barrage of threes from the right wing, easy shots at the rim, and a few just ridiculous shots that seemingly entered the basket without consideration for the laws of physics. On its own, the five-man starting lineup played 17 minutes together last night and finished with a +25, outscoring Philadelphia 47-22. Again, that’s 47-22 in 17 minutes.
- Make no mistake: Reggie Evans would’ve broken the Nets’ rebounding record last night had P.J. Carlesimo decided against sitting him for the final 14 minutes. He grabbed 23 rebounds in 27 minutes, for Brook’s sake. His rebound percentage was 50.6% in 27 minutes! He grabbed over half of all available rebounds for both teams when he was on the floor! When he left the game, he single-handedly was out-rebounding the Sixers 23-20! The Sixers as a team ended the game with lower rebounding percentage than Reginald Jamaal Evans by over 11%!
- Deron Williams had another great shooting game, and it really appears that he’s “found his touch” or whatever arbitrary phrase applies to a shooter making more shots than before. But as his shot chart will show you, he didn’t alleviate any of the recent concerns that he’s not creating offense going towards the basket:
He did attempt and hit five free throws, but three came on a three-point attempt when he caught Jrue Holiday biting on a pump-fake.
- Andray Blatche had an excellent game — using roughly 1/3rd of the team’s possessions in a game with five players, and hitting 8-15 shots — but did most of his damage against second lineups and garbage time. That’s not a knock — Blatche made sure garbage time stayed that way.
- After the second straight solid game off the bench for both players, the Mirza Teletovic & MarShon Brooks tandem rejuvenation needs a nickname. MarZa? MirMar? MirShon? Help me out here.
- Worth noting: outside of the second-round rookies Tyshawn Taylor and Tornike Shengelia, the player with the fewest minutes played last night: Kris Humphries. The way the Nets have played without him getting steady minutes is hard to ignore; their small-ball lineup with Bogans on the wing and Wallace at power forward works, their starting lineup with Evans has been effective, Teletovic is earning more playing time, and now Carlesimo is playing Blatche & Lopez together in short bursts (though not last night). With every passing game, it gets harder to see how he fits into this lineup.
