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| Every night it seems like a different Nets reserve steps up to carry the load for the whole bench, and even some of the starters. Tonight that guy was Andray Blatche. |
Well, to say that this evening's latest Nets win was uneventful would be an incorrect assessment. No, it's not just because they won their fourth-straight game, beat the Celtics for the second time already this season, the fact that Brook Lopez had more rebounds than points, Andray Blatche's double-double, or even that Joe Johnson put up 18 points. It's that a fairly major fight broke out between Rajon Rondo and Kris Humphries (later to involve Kevin Garnett and Gerald Wallace, in addition to both team's benches) at the end of the second quarter. Spilling into the fans behind one of TD Garden's hoops, it began to resemble the famous Malice at the Palace fight between the Pacers and Pistons. However, tonight's was broken up pretty quickly and apparently no one was hurt.
Let's give you some background to the set of fisticuffs. The Nets were playing another one of their trademark first halves, simply running the sluggish Celtics out of the arena. Bridging the first and second quarter, Brooklyn pieced together a 14-4 run that pushed them from having a measly one-point lead to having a 31-20 cushion. Then, as the second progressed, the Net bench, led mainly by C.J. Watson, Andray Blatche, and Reggie Evans, dominated their counterparts from Boston, building up the lead to 47-26 at one point. Then, just a few minutes later, came the fight.
It seemed like a pretty harmless play at first, Kris Humphries fouling Kevin Garnett as the latter attempted to hit a runner in the paint, but, escalated by Rajon Rondo, became a bench-clearing brawl under the basket after Rondo took offense to Hump's foul. It appeared that the Celtics point guard initiated the fight, but soon after, Garnett and Wallace jumped in to get in on the fray. When the dust settled, Rondo, Hump, and Wallace were all ejected and the Nets lead was cut to 13, an advantage they would take into halftime.
True to form, the second half wasn't nearly as exciting as the first was, but it certainly came with its nervous points. A few times the Celtics, on the strength of some hot shooting by Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, cut the deficit dangerously close to single-digits, threatening to make a run at any moment. However, the closest Boston would end up getting was nine points down as the Nets defense, even without Hump and Gerald, played some great basketball and didn't let the Celtics get much room to operate with.
Also, the rebounding continued to be amazing tonight as three Nets were in double-figures (Blatche, Evans, and Lopez, for the second-straight game) in the category, which the Nets won by 10 rebounds over Boston. Anytime they needed a second shot opportunity to cut the lead anymore, the Nets just stonewalled the Celtics on the boards. Yet another near-perfect performance by Brooklyn, this time on the road against a major Eastern Conference and Atlantic Division contender.
Some other observations I had from the game: There isn't much else positive to say about Reggie Evans and Jerry Stackhouse and how incredibly well they have played so far this season. Evans continued to be an animal on the boards tonight, grabbing 10 in addition to playing pretty solid interior defense to boot. Stack scored 17 points on 5-6 three-point shooting, just another leisurely stroll in the park for the Nets' resident old guy. I think all of those threes were from the corner, highlighting just how automatic he has been from there this season. Don't understand how teams aren't stopping the penetration-and-kick to him at this point but, regardless, it's astounding what he has done with tempered expectations as a Net…..Joe looked a little more like his Atlanta self, being aggressive in post-ups and making some sick, contested jumpers right over defenders. I noticed that the key to his separation when driving–unlike others–is the in-front dribbles he makes before making his move. When he gets the defender to bite on one of those crossovers, Joe is free to go wherever he wants. When they don't, he tenses up and takes an awful, off-balanced shot…..Andray Blatche was also great coming off the bench in Humphries' second-half absence. He still takes waaaaaaaaaay too long to shoot sometimes when he's given a great pass with an open lane to the hoop, but he shows great tenacity and wherewithal down low to rebound, occasionally defend, and especially hit his layups. A final statline of 17 points and 13 rebounds on 7-14 shooting in 29 minutes is even more than the Nets needed from Blatche….Once again, D-Will couldn't find his shot but excelled in finding his open teammates and feeding them with great passes. Finished with eight points and seven assists…..Boston committed 17 turnovers, 12 of them being Nets' steals. This defense is improving pretty significantly in a short period of time. Looks like the pieces are starting to fully come together…..Note: No MarShon or Mirza yet again. If the guys getting playing time are going to keep this up, no reason why Avery would make any further lineup changes.
Looking Ahead
Will the Nets have another five-game winning streak? We won't know until Friday night in Orlando against the Magic, the first game of an all-Florida back-to-back the Nets have as they play the Heat in Miami the next night.
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