Suit game proper, even if I didn’t see him in orange spacesuit pants.
They could’ve used his athleticism going after rebounds tonight, but a curious DNP. Not a real grade, obviously — just wanted to note that.
Uhh, pretty sure this was the Paul Pierce the Nets signed. Who cares if it’s off the bench? But when he’s come off the bench this season, it’s taken him a few shots to get going and in a rhythm. Not tonight. Hit his first seven shots (including three threes) and again looked comfortable leading the second unit. In the fourth, the Nets put him in with the starters, and he came up huge in bringing the Nets back into the game with a variety of dipsy-doo layups. Ended with a season-high in points, but he couldn’t do it alone.
Had a solid stint in the first half, hitting one nice floater in the lane and at another shot he had no business taking. Other than that, Williams kept him glued to the bench for the entire second half.
Awfully good to see him hit jump shots on one end and focus the rest of his energy on the other. Had some really good defensive possessions in the middle of the game, but Garnett’s ability to protect the paint didn’t help when the Wizards were bombing from outside.
Not officially a full-time starter, but with Pierce looking solid off the bench with each passing day, it looks like he’ll get the call — at least until Kirilenko returns. Wasn’t particularly efficient tonight, but his process is still the same: stay away from the ball, get open shots. He just needs to hit them.
Really looked to create for teammates early, recording six assists in the first quarter alone, but struggled to find his own shot — and find John Wall on defense — until the fourth quarter, when he started to play more aggressively just a bit too late.
Another 29-point third quarter wasn’t in the cards, and they could’ve used it. But you can’t hang this loss on Johnson’s offense: he took good shots in the flow of the offense and hit them (a few bad isolations in the middle quarters notwithstanding). Unfortunately, his solid shooting night was mitigated by an awful defensive performance, as he got shredded by Bradley Beal.
Had a solid return to the starting lineup after missing two games with a sprained ankle. Scored easily in the paint, but looked lumbering in the paint defensively and was caught out of position trying to defend on a few possessions. Was destroyed on the glass.
Andray Blatche hit a corner 3 in the first quarter and immediately followed it up by not running out a fast break, letting a Deron Williams pass trail past him and bounce harmlessly out of bounds. His help defense may be the worst in the league and he buried a three-pointer with 12.9 seconds left . The entertainment brought on by The Andray Blatche Show cannot be understated, win or lose.
Now he gets in a game? After not even seeing a second in Monday night’s blowout win over the Philadelphia 76ers, Kidd inserted Evans in the third quarter to combat the Nets’ complete sluggishness on defense and inability to rebound. Didn’t do much in either department, unfortunately.
