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| You know that old saying, if you don’t join them, score 33 points on them and beat them |
The Nets are normally the team that lives and/or dies from the 3-pointer, but tonight, the Knicks ended up as the living team. The Nets’ crosstown rivals won the final Hudson River game in New Jersey on the strength of a ridiculous scoring performance from Carmelo Anthony, who scored 21 points in the first quarter alone. Even with the return of Gerald Wallace from injury and inspired defensive play from DeShawn Stevenson, the former Denver Nugget still went nuts on offense and simply couldn’t be stopped. Without D-Will in the line-up, the Nets just couldn’t keep up.
Granted, the Nets outscored the Knicks by seven points over the last three quarter of the game but with the 38-point 1st from New York, the lead was insurmountable. Sure, it got really close at some points (especially in the 3rd quarter when the Knicks were only leading 76-71) but the undermanned Nets just didn’t have enough offense, and defense for that matter, to keep up with the star-studded Knicks. However, that doesn’t mean that the Nets didn’t play well at all.
Of course the Nets would have liked a more complete game after the collapse against the Heat on Monday but you can’t ask for much more than three wonderful quarters of play. Acting starting point guard Sundiata Gaines arguably played his best game as a Nets with 18 points, and six boards and assists apiece. Although out of control a few possessions, Gaines still ran the offense incredibly for Avery Johnson and hit a few big jumpers to keep the game close. Without Shelden Williams in the lineup (knee), Gerald Wallace knew that he would have to step his game up and he did, scoring 21 points on 7-14 shooting. Wallace also played solid defense throughout the game.
Some other observations I had from the game: Armon Johnson is a good little ballplayer. He might not be flashy or make a ton of crazy shots, but he knows his limits and plays within them very well. He has a high basketball IQ and I hope that he’s back with the Nets next season…Hump collected 15 rebounds tonight, and that makes it around 20 games in a row in which he has had more than eight rebounds (I’m not sure of exact number). No matter the circumstance, Kris Humphries always plays his heart out and grabs rebounds like it’s no one’s business…Steve Novak is extremely overrated as a player. He barely moves from behind the 3-point line and even though most of his eight 3-point attempts were wide open, he only hit three of them…Carmelo Anthony is scary good, when he’s hot, he is simply unstoppable on offense.
Looking Ahead
The Nets have a break until Saturday when they head up to Milwaukee to take on the Bucks in the 3rd-to-last game of the season.
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