At least the Nets didn’t lose to a bad team by 20, as cautioned in the pregame open thread. They avoided that debacle. Instead, they lost by 23 to a bad team. A bad team without its two best players. This was, unequivocally, the Nets’ worst game of the season, closing a two-game stretch of some of the worst basketball in recent memory. Last night’s game was an absolute disgrace to the NBA.
Admittedly, the Nets were without Devin Harris, sitting out the contest with a bad quadriceps. It would have made sense for the offense to struggle. But that wasn’t really the case. The Nets essentially matched their per-game scoring output with 92. The real shocker was that the Nets managed to surrender a walloping 115 points to the only team in the NBA averaging fewer points per contest than they do — with Andrew Bogut and Brandon Jennings resting up on the sidelines.
It’s a surprise, really, looking the box score over. The Bucks did shoot 58 percent from the field, but the turnover, assist, and rebounding differentials were all low, and the Nets actually had more points in the paint. But the Nets made only 45 percent of their field goals, and with the way they are playing defense recently, that won’t get the job done.
It was a bit perplexing to see which players for the Bucks were leading the offensive charge. You might expect Corey Maggette to put in his 20 points (even though it’s not 2004 anymore), but all the other names are baffling characters. Ersan Ilyasova had 22, former Net Chris Douglas-Roberts, obviously playing with a chip on his shoulder, had 24, and Earl “Motherf***ing” Boykins (if you don’t know what this means: http://bit.ly/eLrpeY) had 17. Benefit from having a team’s stars out can only come if you restrict the role players to what they’re supposed to do.
Meanwhile, pretty much every Net was bad except for Kris Humphries, Derrick Favors, and Jordan Farmar. That trio combined for 54 points on 58 percent shooting. Brook Lopez had 5 points in 19 minutes, Stephen “I think I can make a 20-footer” Graham was 0-of-5, and Travis Outlaw was 1-of-7.
Devin posted on Twitter that Outlaw has shot 12-of-65 from three-point range in his last 18 games. Based on his $7-million-per-year salary, he has been making $128,000 per three-pointer made over that 18-game stretch. Quite a value pickup the Nets grabbed there.
It’s becoming more and more obvious that the Nets don’t care anymore about this season. Their effort is zilch, and that’s why their defense is zilch.
Commenter hbj725 is right on the money:
Its getting harder and harder to watch our team. Right now i dont care who we trade. Im just tired of this team sucking…
Everyone knows my opinion on where the Nets should go from this point forward. “NetsAren’tScorching” echoed my sentiments precisely:
I agree… Best argument in favor of getting carmelo is the fact that watching this team now is soul-crushing. If we get carmelo yes we give up our future, no we won’t win a title, but at least the games will be watchable, if not downright entertaining. At this point it’s very tough to put up with…
At some point, it just gets tediously frustrating to watch the games. I know most won’t agree with me, I was much more satisfied watching the Nets when a bow-out in the first or second round the playoffs was basically a guarantee. It’s time to make the short-term move to make the team watchable again and to spare this roster absolute mediocrity.
