In the NBA, the best cure for a three-game losing streak, especially one consisted of solely blowout losses, is playing the Philadelphia 76ers. Tonight, at the Barclays Center, the Nets were cured.
It wasn’t easy, wasn’t pretty and was pretty unconvincing, but Brooklyn snapped its losing streak with another winnable game upcoming on Saturday night.
Joe Johnson returned from his flu absence and scored 11 points but was clearly fatigued and not himself at all. However, it was Mason Plumlee (18 points, 10 rebounds) and even Cory Jefferson (six points, seven rebounds) who led the way for the Nets tonight with their energy, rebounding and scoring at the hoop.
Granted, the 76ers are a really bad team and fell to 2-20 with the loss but it was good to see some lesser-used players (even new additions Brandon Davies and Darius Morris got in for garbage time) put some work in. Interesting how Jerome Jordan didn’t play at all tonight because he wasn’t reported as injured or anything. Maybe Lionel Hollins was saving him for Al Jefferson tomorrow night in Charlotte.
After going down 16-12 early in the first quarter, the Nets rolled off a 16-2 run to take a 10-point lead. At that point, it felt as if the Nets could have easily ran away with this game. However, the young 76ers had other plans and slowly fought their way back into the game, even taking a 45-44 lead into halftime.
In the second half, though, Philly regressed to the mean in a big way, as the 76ers only scored 25 points over the final two frames (10 points in fourth quarter, none until 7:00 mark). The Nets didn’t do much better but were able to hit enough shots to build a 80-65 lead on a Johnson three that for all intents and purposes sealed this one away.
Some other observations I had from the game: A win is a win. The Nets needed one very badly and they got it, even if it was against one of the NBA’s worst teams. You play who is on your schedule and that’s it…As the Post‘s Tim Bontemps pointed out in the fourth quarter, Jarrett Jack is very adept at throwing great alley oop passes. He didn’t shoot well in this game but have five assists, most of which were on lobs to Plumlee and Jefferson for easy dunks on a sieve-like Philadelphia defense…Deron Williams didn’t even make any of his eight field goal attempts and was a major offensive non-factor with three points. He did manage to get 10 assists and compile three steals to go with four rebounds. The shot wasn’t there tonight but at least he made himself useful with passing and defense. That’s what good, smart veterans do…Kevin Garnett also didn’t shoot well (2-for-7 from the field) but collected 12 rebounds and even four assists. I’ve been saying it for a year and a half but KG’s passing ability is one of his most underrated attributes…Nets won the rebounding battle 47-37 which is probably something I won’t say again in the next few weeks or even months…They forced 24 Philly turnovers but only scored 25 points off them (Nets committed 17 of their own and allowed 18 points). The turnover-forcing (Nets had 16 team steals) is great but they need to score more points off the other team’s miscues. In so many games do the Nets fall behind because of how easily their opponent scores off their turnovers. No reason why the Nets can’t do the same…Three-point shooting was piss-poor yet again. Nets were open left and right from long-range but they only made 25 percent of their chances. Not gonna cut it.
Looking Ahead
The Nets look to keep the winning going tomorrow night in Charlotte against the struggling Hornets.
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