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| Somehow, the Nets let Timofey Mozgov score 17 points and grab a career-high 20 rebounds in the loss. If that doesn't say it all, then I don't know what does. |
Tell me if you have heard this story before.
The Nets, coming off a big road win versus the Memphis Grizzlies a few nights ago, started their matchup with the streaking Nuggets with a lot of energy. Brooklyn led much of the first quarter but was burned in the second quarter, which Denver won by ten points, and fell down by eight at halftime. The Nuggets then put the game away in the third by more than doubling up the Nets' score, securing their 11th win of the year and dropping Brooklyn to 5-13.
Still without four main players, due to injury, the Nets were able to keep up with the athletic, run-and-gun Nuggets early on in the first quarter, but were just outplayed, outhustled, outrebounded, and outran after that point. Possibly the most telling statistic of this entire night was that the Nuggets grabbed 56 rebounds, 17 of which were of the offensive variety. Conversely, the Nets collected just 37 total boards. At one point in the second quarter, Denver had 29 while Brooklyn had just 13. Whenever one team has less than half the rebounds of the other after the first quarter, it's not looking good for the outrebounded team.
Some other observations I had from the game: Clearly, demoting Lawrence Frank from actual assistant coach to one in title only did absolutely no good for Jason Kidd's Nets. Brooklyn gave up its third-most points allowed (111) of the season to Denver tonight, and let the Nuggets make over 50 percent of their field goals. So much for improving the defense…..Mirza Teletovic sprained his left hand in the game, but somehow got negative x-ray results while it was still going on. He was 0-for-4 from the field and was scoreless. Good news is that his injury isn't expected to be serious….Brook Lopez and KG were off their games tonight, combining to shoot 4-of-13 from the field and play only 38 minutes. Major non-factors…..Once again, Joe Johnson was Brooklyn's best player. He scored a game-high 22 on 8-of-15 shooting and was an important go-to guy on offense early on…..Tyshawn Taylor started at point guard instead of Shaun Livingston and only made four of the 12 shots he took (33%). No clue why he's in over Livingston, no clue at all…..Nets were 2-of-16 from three-point range. Hard to win games like that.
Looking Ahead
The Nets come stumbling into their first cross-city rivalry game of the young season with the Knicks, who hold the second-worst record in the NBA. Brooklyn, as do the Knicks, needs a win incredibly bad, and would be very close to rock bottom if they were to lose to the squad from Manhattan.
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