Check out the advanced box score from last night’s 113-106 Nets victory here.
Some takeaways:
- The Nets allowed their opponents to shoot 49% from the field, 54% from three, and 83% from the free throw line, adding up to an excellent 53% effective field goal percentage and similarly excellent 57.5% true shooting percentage — and still won handily if not for a late Kyle Lowry barrage. The Nets say their defense turns into offense, but last night there wasn’t a lot of defense — just a lot of offense.
- Brook Lopez, 20% rebound rate, essentially identical to Reggie Evans’ last night. 22 points, 9 rebounds, 10-10 from the line in 29 minutes. 5th in the league in PER. YawnnnnnnnnnNBABallot.
- Andray Blatche didn’t have his best game and it’s exactly the kind of game you hope he has offensively in the future. As fun as the Blatche train has been in the past three months (off-court issues notwithstanding), when he faces up on an opponent, goes into his whirling dervish, and attempts a fadeaway over his man, he’ll miss it more often than he makes it. You like that he can make that shot, but that’s not a high-percentage look with five players on the floor. Tuesday night, perhaps because Blatche was battling illness, we saw fewer of those as the game progressed, and by the end of the game Blatche was almost exclusively a dump-down center, doing nothing but filling small gaps near the rim and getting open layups & dunks.
- Kyle Lowry is made of molten Brooklyn Nets poison. I’m convinced. He does this every single time these two teams play. Even playing on a sprained ankle, Lowry hit seemingly everything in the fourth quarter and was the sole reason this game wasn’t a blowout. Staggering performance. And he’s their backup.
- I’m putting this here again because it deserves to be watched again. Crap, this was beautiful.
- Deron Williams, with yet another good game in the P.J. era, has now made 40 consecutive free throws. You could say his free throws are undefeated in 2013.
- I’m not sure how I went this long without mentioning Mirza Teletovic AKA #Fearza AKA MT3 AKA The Bosnian Bomber AKA Mirza McLovin. I’m glad to end on this positive note: Teletovic easily played his best game last night on all fronts, hitting three threes in the second quarter, playing an effective brand of dribble-drive basketball in the second half, finding open shooters in the corners, and looking for the first time like a professional basketball player with a distinct advantage over his opponents. A welcome sight.
