Ran the floor for a fun dunk in the first half. Fun! Dunks!
Filling out well as a stretch four — did a little bit of the creative duties and controlled the glass on his assignment. Striking a nice balance between his inside and outside game.
His two blocks in the first quarter were one of the few good things to come out of it. Had some trouble scoring at the rim in the first half, but made up for it with a flurry of good plays in his early third-quarter stint.
Did a lot of good little things, chasing after loose balls, playing effective defense, and hitting teammates with smart passes. Got beat backdoor early, but made up for it with smart spacing and defensive directions. Team immediately looked better with him on the court. Gets docked a bit for the silly end to the third quarter, where he thought the quarter had ended and he just threw the ball away to a Spurs player. But the Nets improve drastically with him on the court.
Played really solid defense on Tiago Splitter — Spitter threw in a few shots in the post, but not because they were easy. Had some rough offensive possessions in the second half but generally played well within his role.
Joe who? Scored 17 of 21 Nets points during a crucial second-half stretch, assisting on one of the only other baskets (a dunk by Andrei Kirilenko) Only tried to do more than he needs to in brief, harmless spurts, actually playing quite effectively for a strong third-quarter stretch.
The tale of two Derons tonight: Started the game with such a poor five-minute stretch that Kidd elected to remove him from the game with Kevin Garnett in the team’s first round of substitutions. Looked passive, turnover-prone, couldn’t hit shots and didn’t take advantage of a couple of open lanes. Then, hit one layup and a long two-pointer through contact, left the game briefly with a right knee injury. Improved after returning to the game, hitting some shots inside and out, participating in the team’s ball movement parade.
Wasn’t overwhelming or underwhelming, but decently whelming. Shame he didn’t hit a three-pointer in the game immediately following the announcement that he’d enter the 2014 Three-Point Contest. Alan Anderson’s scoring outburst kept him on the bench for the majority of the fourth quarter.
Airballed a three-pointer to close the first quarter as a volcano began to rumble. Threw a picture-perfect no-look pass to a streaking Mirza Teletovic with 3:13 left in the fourth quarter to put the Nets up 14 to quiet the volcano.
Did a decent job boxing out and going for rebounds. Not an offensive game for him tonight other than a late SKY MIRZA!
