Decent game from Williams; some great feeds inside and outside to get open shots for Lopez/Wallace/et al, but six turnovers and a quiet game outside of his passing (one nasty double-crossover notwithstanding).
For the first half, Mo Johnson was back! Missing open shots, missing layups, taking bad shots, and looking about as effective as DeShawn Stevenson. Caught fire early in the third quarter and put up some smart shots, but was mostly invisible in his time on the floor in the fourth.
One of his better offensive games — you don’t like him as a spot-up shooter as much as you do a cutter, but if he makes the shot, you live with it. Glad that the contact his head made with Jose Calderon did not seem to be serious.
Early struggle face strong. Took a full quarter-plus to get accustomed to playing professional basketball, but without Drummond playing many minutes, Lopez began to take more and more control of the game, getting tip-ins and dunks inside, and hitting a big inside shot with 18 seconds left to put the Nets up 3.
Some sweet, innovative, crafty moves, and some classic Blatchian mistakes on both ends of the floor. Didn’t make a shot outside of the restricted area — but it didn’t stop him from trying!
Excellent game from a fourth/fifth offensive option. Didn’t force, swung the ball well, took smart shots.
Good minutes.
Incredibly involved in this game, for all the good and bad; airballed the first shot of the game after keeping his back to an open Gerald Wallace, hit an and-one layup in the first half, grabbed seemingly every rebound within arm’s reach, picked up dumb fouls, hit an 18-footer, drew a ton (that’s the technical amount) of fouls on Detroit bigs, and missed a key defensive rotation late that led to a layup. Overall, a positive. But still not a long-term starter.
After a game chock-full of chants from a crowd of Bosnians — “WE WANT MIRZA!” — Carlesimo put Teletovic in to begin the fourth quarter, and Teletovic responded with… an airball. Then another airball. Then… a third airball. Not exactly spacing the floor.
Ouch.
