Rapid Reaction: Hawks 106, Nets 70

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Five thoughts on the game

  • 1. The Nets are tired. I stand corrected. I thought the comeback win over the Wizards would build the Nets some momentum going into a (hopefully) rusty Hawks team. In fact, just the opposite happened. These Nets are burned out and don’t have enough team chemistry to just go out and wing it right now. Unfortunately, the Hawks were completely ready for an exhausted Nets team and took full advantage of it. I don’t think this is the team we are going to see all season, but the Nets need to start taking advantage of their days off if they want to keep up during this incredibly difficult schedule.
  • 2. MarShon Brooks. It’s tough to talk about bright spots after a game like this, but the rookie played some pretty good basketball tonight. A valiant effort from him. Brooks displayed a great jump shot from all over the court and in traffic. One thing you have to give MarShon credit for was his inability to become intimidated on the court. He played confidentially. Not every one of his shots went in, but it’s pretty clear that Avery likes what Brooks brings and his field goal percentage is only going to get better from here. This could be a fun guy to watch in the coming months.
  • 3. Speaking of improving field goal percentage, the Nets need to improve their field goal percentage! Look, I’m all for a breakout rookie performance, but when the #25 pick in a bad draft scores the most points on your team (by a pretty good margin considering who plays on the team), that’s not a good sign for your offensive production. Anthony Morrow and Deron Williams especially need to start making their shots. Morrow, the teams designated sharp shooter, has had one redeeming-ly bad and one bad game, while Deron has had two below-average shooting percentage games. I don’t care who the Nets are playing, shooting 31% from the field is completely unacceptable. This team has a lot of work cut out for them, but this should be priority number one.
  • 4. Maybe the Rock should start to boo Kris Humphries? After a lights out performance last night from the Hump, he comes up short against Atlanta. Smith, Horford, even Radmoanovic and Pachulia proved to be too much for Humphries to handle. He wasn’t grabbing boards and wasn’t protecting the basket like he did yesterday. As I said in his player rating, he played hard and gave forth a lot of effort, but Kris Humphries is going to need a little more than boos to get him motivated. Until Brook Lopez comes back, he is going to have to put up huge games for the Nets every single night.
  • 5. How worried should we be about Deron Williams’ hand? We saw Deron’s scoring go down last year when he injured his wrist. Just a game after grabbing his hand in pain, Deron puts up a pretty lousy day of shooting and passing. Not even a sold out Prudential Center could get him fired up, and I’m really hoping that this isn’t going to be an issue with him. We clearly didn’t get to see the same player we saw yesterday, and until he comes back with another A+ plus performance, I’m going to remain slightly worried. It’s the nervous Nets fan in me.