Their defense was stellar in the first half as they surrendered just 28 points to New Orleans, the fewest the Nets have given up in a half since 2005. That wasn’t so much the case in the second half, especially with the starters in, but the bench carried the team on the shoulders of Mason Plumlee and Andrei Kirilenko
He didn’t play much in deference to the effective bench, but he was pedestrian in his minutes. Every few games he shows flashes of his slicing-and-dicing Utah style, and we saw that tonight, but he never puts that together for a whole game.
He took one shot and was mostly a nonfactor. Did a solid job of looking like Alexis Ajinca on the broadcast.
He only played 23 minutes and scored 8 points. Like Williams and Livingston, he was mostly a nonfactor.
Did I say something about nonfactors? Nonfactor. He did hit a memorable three in the third quarter to stunt a Pelicans run.
He only had to play 13 minutes (good thing he had the night off against Detroit!!!) and hit all three of his field-goal attempts. He also let out a primal roar after colliding heads with Shaun Livingston and bleeding from his skull. Just a normal day for Kevin Garnett.
Of the members of the bench, Blatche was the least important to this game. It’s probably because he went back to his headband look.
He only had 4 points and missed 3 free throws, but he was as Kirilenko as ever in this game. One particular stint of a dunk and a block highlighted a solid Nets fourth quarter.
Alan Anderson was fairly good, and many of his shots severely limited runs from the Pelicans.
He only hit one three, but he did register a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
HOLY CRAP, PLUMLEE. Mason logged a career high with 22 points on 8-of-10 shooting to go along with 13 rebounds. He was an athletic freak, sprinting at the rim with reckless abandon and kicking Anthony Davis and his alien jumping ability to the side. Plumlee often brings an energy the Nets need, but there just isn’t always a place in the rotation for him. Maybe we’ll see more Plumlee and less Blatche in the coming games.
Another 0-of-5 shooting night for Jason Terry. That’s becoming his thing, I guess. He did have five assists, though.
