Advanced Box Score | Piston Powered
Going into last night’s game, the Pistons were the worst three point shooting team in the NBA. Against the Nets last night, the Pistons hit their first 7 threes, including a 4-4 first half from Charlie Villanueva. Now a few of them was due to defensive breakdowns, but 3 that Charlie Villanueva made were just plain silly fadeaway-with a hand in his face threes. Of course he saves them for the Nets. Someone else from the Pistons who was saving a big day was Jonas Jerebko. He scored 20 points on 9-9 shooting, including 2 threes. It was only in 24 minutes as well, he probably could have done more damage if he wasn’t in foul trouble. It looked like the Nets funneled things to Jerebko early on (which is a pretty sound strategy) but once he hit a few jumpers, the Nets couldn’t stop him.
For most of the game, the Nets offense just looked out of sync, they never really all that aggressive, and they never really hit a high point (like in past games), until the end of the third/start of the fourth. The Nets went on an 11-2 run, attacking the basket and playing some aggressive defense. I really liked the lineup that was in there, and I think that Kiki will be going to this lineup when the Nets need to make up points from here on out. The lineups was Terrence Williams,Devin Harris,Keyon Dooling,Kris Humphries, and Brook Lopez. What I liked about this lineup was that the Nets have 3 guys who can handle the basketball, and you just create mismatches.
Halfway into the fourth quarter, it looked like the Nets were going to put their 4th quarter woes behind them. They were attacking the basket and taking smart shots. In fact, this style of play got them a 1 point lead late. Then, for some reason, the Nets just reverted back to their old ways. Here are the shots they took after taking the lead:
- Keyon Dooling Missed a 25 foot three
- Devin Harris got to the line and made 1 of 2
- Brook missed a 21 footer
- Courtney makes a three
- Hayes misses a 24 foot three (rushed)
- Kris Humphries misses a 14 footer
Those were the shots before the injury besides Devin getting to the line and Courtney’s three (which was off of Devin’s penetration), there was nothing going to the basket. Here is what Kiki had to say of the Nets performance late, “Guys are playing hard, we need to play smarter late. That will come with experience.” Some more thoughts after the jump.
- That collision that the Devin and Jarvis had at half court looked real bad. At first I thought it was Jarvis’ knee, and he would be gone for the year. It was just his shin though, and he doesn’t expect to miss any time. As for Devin, he wasn’t made available to the media, but they are reported that he had a shoulder sprain.
- Brook had three possessions where he got the ball on the outside, and actually dribble-drove to the basket, getting the lay-up. It isn’t something that I want to see often, but it is pretty cool seeing your center drive like a PG
- Apparently (I didn’t see this), as the injury took place, they panned to Rod Thorn who was letting every curse in the book fly.
- Kiki was also more animated last night. I don’t know if it was a calculated move or not, but the Nets seemed to take it seriously.
