Did you think the Nets’ win over the Clippers at Barclays on Monday night was a fluke? Well, if you did, I wouldn’t necessarily blame you and I’ll admit I may have a felt a tinge of that as well. But, with another big win tonight in Toronto, it’s possible that victory over Doc Rivers’ team was more than an aberration.
Prior to Wednesday, the Nets were 0-2 against their division rival, the Raptors. Brooklyn won the seven-game first round playoff series from the team from up north but hasn’t been able to solve Dwane Casey’s squad yet this season. Tonight, they were able to do that.
Brooklyn got off to a solid start, going ahead 17-11 early in the game before a 13-0 Raptors run put the home team ahead for the whole first half. The Nets did a job through the first two quarters and staying close to Toronto, answering almost every basket with one of their own.
This hard work paid off on a pair of Joe Johnson free throws with 30 seconds left in the half that tied up the score at 49. Toronto would get a DeMar DeRozan layup afterwards to head into the break up two, but the Nets already got themselves solely back in the game.
The second half would be a completely different story from the first as the Nets essentially steamrolled the Eastern Conference’s second-best team record-wise. Brooklyn outscored Toronto 60-42 over the final 24 minutes and used some smart defense and timely shooting–as well as some beautiful, beautiful ball movement–to build a 10-point lead by the 2:46 mark of the third, on a Alan Anderson (22 points on 7-9 shooting) jumper.
The Nets’ issues with closing quarters struck again, however, as Toronto used a 10-3 run–on points from DeRozan, Patrick Patterson and Terrence Ross–to sneak back within four points as the game headed to the fourth quarter.
In the final frame, Brooklyn dominated play like it did in the third but the Raptors never were able to come back and were showing pretty ugly body language for a top-tier team.
Thanks to a pair of Raptors’ fouls on Nets shooting threes–Anderson and Jarrett Jack (24 points and six assists)–and an Anderson two-pointer and Bojan Bogdanovic (11 points on 3-4 three-point shooting) triple, the lead shot back up to 11 after just 2:15 expired in the fourth. The teams exchanged points for a few minutes before Brooklyn really put the rout on.
For a four-and-a-half minute stretch that took the game 8:18 remaining to just 3:47, the Nets rolled off 10 unanswered points that really sealed the deal on their second-straight impressive win against a team well above .500. Jack hit a contested jumper, Bojan drilled back-to-back threes and Mason Plumlee (six points, seven rebounds) hit a pair of free throws) as part of the run so you know things were happening.
After that, Brooklyn was up big, 101-82, and this was one was out of question. The Raptors never did much to give themselves a chance to win this one in the fourth quarter, settling for loads of low-percentage shots while not getting out to guard Nets’ three-point shooters. They also lost their cool, most notably with DeRozan committing a hard foul on a Bojan fastbreak run and earning a deserved flagrant 2 and subsequent ejection for it. Yeah, safe to say Brooklyn shut the Raptors down.
Assorted thoughts: Jack and Anderson combined for 46 points on just 22 shots. They led the Nets all the way tonight and continued to make big shot after big shot. Since Deron Williams and Brook Lopez (combined for just 8-26 shooting) were off and Joe Johnson only contributed 12 points, the Nets’ current starting backcourt had to step up and it did in a huge way….Kevin Garnett played just 12 minutes–his playing time has been noticeably down lately–and was pretty effective, scoring seven and grabbing four boards. He was also active on defense, forcing three steals. Have to love what he’s given the team when healthy, both on and off the floor. One of his so-called frontcourt proteges, Cory Jefferson, gave some good minutes in the second quarter, throwing down some big dunks and you could see KG going nuts on the bench. He’s accepted his role as a mentor on this team and it’s great….As mentioned above, Bojan hit some more big threes tonight and his sudden resurgence has been huge for Brooklyn in the last two wins. He stretches the floor and really opens up the interior for players like Brook and Mason….Overall, just another incredible performance from a team that looked dead in the water a few days ago. They had every reason to drop this game after playing so well on Monday but came back at it to destroy one of the East’s better teams and an opponent that they’ve had a history with recently. Nothing better than those type of wins.
Onto the next one: Friday night at Brooklyn against the Knicks
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
