The Nets, coming off another brutal home loss to the Chicago Bulls yesterday afternoon, are 6-9 and on the outside looking in of the Eastern Conference playoff picture. They have their second crosstown meeting of the season with the Knicks coming up tomorrow night–Brooklyn won the first at Barclays in blowout fashion in November–so hopefully Brooklyn can get a win before they end their season series with the Spurs the next night.
In more off-court news, the New York Post‘s Tim Bontemps has Nets rookie Markel Brown’s sad and interesting story of his trip from childhood to the NBA. Brown, whom the Timberwolves drafted 44th overall in June’s draft out of Oklahoma State and traded to the Nets, is an Alexandria, LA native who has faced multiple personal tragedies throughout his life that he credits with making him the person and player he is today.
Brown has only played in one game–the loss to the Spurs in San Antonio–for three minutes thus far, hitting a three for the only made field goal of his NBA career. Lionel Hollins has said that Brown isn’t ready for regular minutes just yet but with the Andrei Kirilenko situation to likely be resolved soon, he might sneak his way into the rotation.
As if the struggling Nets needed more embarrassment, it appears that during Sunday’s game against the Bulls, Kevin Garnett attempted to bite Joakim Noah right on the wrist. Noah tried to laugh off the incident after the game but when KG was asked about, he coyly denied the reported intentions, saying he would have succeeded in biting Noah if he really wanted to. The Nets lost 102-84.
For some non-Nets related, Atlantic Division news, Toronto Raptors’ star swingman DeMar DeRozan is out indefinitely with a tendon tear in his groin. Ouch. The Raptors are 13-4 and have the best record in the Eastern Conference, so they’ve certainly gotten off to a good start just a few months after being eliminated in the playoffs by the Nets in May. The injury, though, deals a harsh blow to the Raptors, which rely on his so much for scoring.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
