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| The Nets certainly couldn’t stop Paul Pierce tonight, but that didn’t stop them a great win, one that improves their undefeated record so far in the preseason. |
Halfway through the Nets’ preseason slate, and they still haven’t lost a game yet. That undefeated record was continued tonight in Boston as the Nets’ back-ups and reserves, essentially, beat the Celtics’ starters. Since Avery Johnson wanted to give all five of the starters from Monday’s win a day off for rest and recovery, five second-line players started for the Nets on Tuesday and did extremely win. Even though Paul Pierce managed to score 29 points for the game, and 20 in the 1st half alone, the Nets played good enough defense to keep them in the game and to even garner a lead late in the 4th quarter.
A few Nets made team debuts tonight and helped in the winning effort. Tyshawn Taylor, whom the Nets traded for on Draft Day this past June, returned from a quad injury to score 6 points and dole out 5 assists in 17 minutes of play. Also, veteran Jerry Stackhouse and Georgian (the country) import Tornike (Toko) Shengalia, who scored 4 and 11 points respectively.
In addition to those making their Nets debuts on guaranteed contracts, some of the team’s non-guaranteed training camp invites made their team debuts (not including summer league) as well. James Mays and Stephen Dennis each played their first games with the Nets with Mays being the more productive of the two. The third of the Nets trio of non-roster training camp invitees that have never played in the NBA, Carleton Scott from Notre Dame, got a few minutes in the Nets’ game in Atlantic City and collected 7 rebounds tonight, to go along with 5 points.
Among the players who are poised to make the squad out of the preseason and be in the rotation for the regular season, Andray Blatche distanced himself from the crowd again. After 16 points and 8 boards on Monday at the Barclays Center against the Wizards, his former team, Blatche started and led the Nets in scoring with 23 and also had 9 rebounds. After being a low-risk, low-reward kind of signing in the offseason, it appears that Andray might make a significant difference for the team this year as an energy guy who can rebound and score well coming off the bench.
Some other observations I had from tonight’s game: After a few so-so performances in the Nets first two games, rebounding specialist Reggie Evans played very well against the Celtics, grabbing 10 boards along with a solid 8 points. He showed the tenacity and fight that has earned him a long career in the league and needs to provide those characteristics to a Nets team that has a dearth of players that constantly play at that intensity level. The only pitfall of Evans’ game is his propensity to get into foul trouble, something he did tonight with four fouls in just 23 minutes. He’s gotta fix that in the regular season……Josh Childress showed a little something tonight with a few three-pointers, showing his ability to stretch the floor when he’s in he game, knock down some shots, and open up the interior for guys like Blatche and Evans to go to work in……Mirza Teletovic played ok, scoring 18 points. However, the label placed on him as a volume shooter seems to be accurate as he needed a whopping 17 shots for those 18 points. Maybe his inefficiency is because of his adjusting the American style of play but he can’t regularly shoot like that when the games count, the Nets just can’t afford that……Granted, it’s just preseason, but the fact that a Nets team that rested all of its starters was able to beat a team at nearly full strength in the Celtics is an accomplishment. The big question during the offseason surrounding the Nets had to with the ability of their bench, but if the first three preseason games are any indication of how the regular season will turn out, then I think the bench will be fine.
Looking Ahead
The Nets have a day off on Wednesday before returning home to the Barclays Center to play these Celtics again on Thursday night. That game will be televised on TNT.
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