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Carlos Boozer scored 29 points and grabbed 18 rebounds in a legitimate, real, non-rigged NBA basketball game. I don't really have anything to say about that, party due to my disbelief that I just typed that line |
On national TV (TNT), in their first game at home in Barclays Center in almost three weeks, facing a Bulls team missing five major rotational players, the Nets lost one of their most embarrassing decisions of the entire season. Although they were just a few calls here-and-there, and a rimmed-out Brook Lopez buzzer-beating jumper at the end of the fourth, from heading to overtime and possibly winning this game, the Nets watched a double-digit lead slip right away as they just appeared to not want to win this massively-important for whatever reason. By the way, the loss brings the Nets just 1.5 games ahead of both the #5 seed Bulls and #6 Hawks for the #4 seed in the East. Yup.
In lieu of the normal recap, I'm just going to list the statistics that really defined this game, because they were pretty stark:
29 points, 18 rebounds: Carlos Boozer's stat-line as Chicago outrebounded the Nets by a margin of 46-30. Hold on, just threw up in my mouth.
34 points, 17 rebounds, 15-30 shooting: The combined stats of Jimmy Butler and Luol Deng, who the Nets never came close to stopping effectively the whole night. Add the rebounding number to Boozer's and you get 35, five more than the entire Nets team. Yes, three Bulls players outrebounded the entire/whole/full Brooklyn roster by FIVE REBOUNDS. You can't win games like that.
11 minutes: How much playing time Vladimir Radmanovic got this evening. No, I didn't know he was on the Bulls either. Oh yeah, and he hadn't played since March 13th. And he's just played in 21 of the Bulls' 74 games this season. Did the Nets exploit the fact that Radmanovic, who has no clue how to play defense in the slightest, got significant time? No, not at all. You got an explanation for that?, because I don't.
Four players: The amount of Bulls (Boozer, Mohammed, Deng, Butler) that grabbed at least seven rebounds. For the Nets? Just one (Reggie Evans).
Four turnovers: Andray Blatche somehow committed four turnovers in just 11 minutes. I wasn't even sure that was possible for one player.
Some other observations I had from the game: #ReggieEvansReboundWatch: 13. Only one rebounding for Brooklyn, at all……Brook and D-Will were great yet again (10-19 shooting for 28 points for Brook, 9-16 shooting for 30 points and 10 assists for Deron). Only thing is that they just can't do it all by themselves, and today, they barely got assistance from the reserves, who scored only 16 points combined…..Joe and Gerald returned from their injuries, Gerald didn't do much and Joe hit a few big threes. Neither looked to be at 100 percent.
Looking Ahead
Wednesday night at Barclays against the Bobcats. If the Nets lose that one, they won't be looking like the #4 seed for much longer.
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