Through the first 16:15 of their game in Milwaukee against Jason Kidd and the Bucks tonight, the Nets played like the team with loads of athletic, young players with an incredibly bright future. Then, Milwaukee called a timeout and promptly went on a 12-2 run to cut their once 17-point deficit to seven, then to five by halftime and into a lead early in the second half that resulted in a win.
Brooklyn was incredibly sharp early on, absolutely dominating first quarter play. However, thanks to a few missed threes that could have extended their lead and dreadful defensive rebounding exploited by the length of John Henson and Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Nets only led by six after the first 12 minutes. Still, it was a vast improvement from Saturday’s coast-to-coast debacle against the Wizards.
The second quarter started in a similar vein, with the Nets shooting well on offense and contesting shots well on defense. A few Milwaukee possessions consisted of multiple shot attempts that were either blocked by Brooklyn or missed so badly that they became easy to rebound. The Bucks weren’t able to capitalize on these additional chances and found themselves down 41-24 with 7:45 to go in the half.
A pair of Antetokounmpo free throws served as Milwaukee’s first points of the frame and then the scoring just flowed for the next few minutes, in which this game went from a possible blowout for the Nets to one with a more questionable ending. Brooklyn committed turnover after turnovers, sandwiched in between low-percentage shots, while Milwaukee used a bunch of open Jared Dudley (19 points, 5-5 from three) triples to open the lane up for layups and free throw opportunities. Even former Net Jorge Gutierrez got in on the action with a floater.
When all was said and done, the Nets’ lead was down to 52-47 by halftime. Dudley made all three of his three-point attempts in the quarter, sparking the Bucks while zapping Brooklyn of any intensity, effort or real intention to win this game. The trend continued in the second half, which inauspiciously–for the Nets–started with Alan Anderson getting fouled behind the arc and making just one of the three attempts from the charity stripe.
That start kind of characterized the whole half, which saw Milwaukee double Brooklyn up–32-16–in the third quarter en route to a pretty easy win for the Bucks. As the home team slowly built its advantage, which was as much as 13 points in the third, the Nets never did much to stem the tide, outside of some late fourth quarter threes from Jarrett Jack (26 points and eight assists). A lifeless, depressing loss. Sound familiar for your 2014-15 Nets?
Assorted thoughts: Jack was amazing, outside of a few turnovers and foul trouble, yet again. Once he left the floor in the second quarter, Milwaukee started its run that set the tone for the rest of the game. It’s great that Jack is playing so well, but if the Nets are going to stop being a smart basketball team when he’s not on the floor, it’s not good. Didn’t that Deron Williams was awful for the third-straight game. D-Will missed all five of his field goal attempts in 23 minutes and committed four turnovers to go with four assists. A 1/1 assist/turnover ratio is very, very bad for someone like Deron, especially when he’s doing nothing on offense. It’s not like Lionel Hollins can do to Darius Morris for halfway decent minutes. D-Will, admittedly battling through an illness that almost caused him to miss the game, needs to step up. Jack can’t do it all….Joe Johnson (19 points and six assists) shot well but didn’t do much in the second half and even though he did play 42 minutes, was basically nonexistent down the stretch and while Brooklyn was blowing this game. That’s partially due to his tendency to get lost in the background of the game but also partially due to the offense’s inability to get him the ball in a scoring position. Joe is best out on the wing, where he can shake a defender for an easy jumper, or down low in the post, where he can use his size to get a high-percentage floater or layup. He just wasn’t given the ball enough in those positions tonight, even as the offense stagnated….Brook Lopez was limited to 21 minutes, also due to foul trouble. He was efficient on offense (10 points on seven shots) when he was in, but he can’t do any good sitting on the bench. Additionally, he didn’t do anything (five rebounds, I know, should of had much more) to help out on the defensive boards (Nets were outrebounded 44-38 and gave up 13 offensive rebounds). Even Zaza Pachulia had his way on the glass….Very bad shooting days from both Anderson and Bojan Bogdanovic. They combined to miss half (5-10) of their free throws and eight of their 10 three-point attempts. No excuse for missing free throws and there really shouldn’t be one for open threes as well. Those guys are shooters and need to hit uncontested triples when the offense gets them open. Can’t blame coaching when the offense results in a free jumper that just isn’t knocked down….The Nets were mauled down low in the second half and Brook was in foul trouble, yet Cory Jefferson got 11 minutes of playing time while Jerome Jordan got none. Why is the 7-foot Jordan on the roster if he doesn’t play in a game like this one?….Finally, the Nets committed 16 turnovers to Milwaukee’s 10. The Bucks scored 20 points on Brooklyn’s miscues, which contributed to their advantage of 21-7 in fastbreak points. Too many times did the Bucks collect dumb Nets passes and turned them into clear layups down at the other end of the floor. Those points are free ones that heavily swing six-point games.
Onto the next one: Tomorrow night in Memphis against the 38-13 Grizzlies. Things just keep getting better, no?
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