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| This is Lester Hudson. You probably didn’t know that before last night’s game but you should now. |
I was at this game and boy was it interesting/exciting. Cleveland didn’t have Kyrie Irving due to injury but that didn’t matter as they got extremely productive performances from some unassuming forces as they fought back to tie up the game with a 38-point 4th quarter. As usual, the game started off with the Nets being sluggish as Cleveland jumped out to a quick 22-13 lead. The Nets stormed back to take an 8-point halftime lead by winning the 2nd quarter 30-18.
Then, after a particularly even 3rd quarter, the Cavs went crazy in the 4th by hitting 12 of their 21 shots, especially six of seven from behind the arc. 10-day contract signee Lester Hudson put his mark on the game in this quarter by scoring 18 of his 26 points, highlighted by a three with 0.3 seconds remaining that sent this game to overtime. Honestly, I had no idea who Lester Hudson was as a player prior to the game but now I know that he can shoot from really deep and with players in his face. Yet another D-Leaguer who burned the Nets.
Overtime was much less dramatic than regulation play as the Nets took control for the period after hitting their first two shots of the 5-minute extra session, which were consecutive dunks by Kris Humphries and Gerald Green. Green was spectacular in this one as he scored a Net-high 32 points on 11-18 shooting with 5-7 from three. Cleveland’s Antawn Jamison had the game-high with 34 points as he simply couldn’t be stopped by anyone on the Nets.
There was some bad news to take from this game and that was Gerald Wallace straining his left hamstring in the 2nd quarter. Wallace didn’t return to the game afterwards and his condition is unknown right now. Other than that, pretty solid win for a Nets team that seems to be finding its way at the Prudential Center.
Some other observations I had from the game: Shelden Williams had his first good game (9 points, 10 rebounds) since his severe eye injury. This team plays a lot harder and with more intensity when Shelden is playing and his importance to this team is a lot greater than what it seems to be on the surface…Deron simply can’t shoot at the Prudential Center and that was exhibited by his failure to hit a 3-pointer (0-7) and poor overall shooting effort (8-19). Regardless, he was able to forget his shot and instead turned into a major distributor, ending up with 10 assists. I love how D-Will has the self-awareness to alter the way he plays based on how he feels and performs earlier in games. Most point guards in this league don’t have that ability to make on-the-fly adjustments during games but that’s what separates D-Will from all the other point guards in the NBA…Just one Cavs note, Tristan Thompson killed the Nets again last night with 15 points and 15 boards. From the few Cleveland games that I see that aren’t against the Nets, Thompson doesn’t do much at all but that is not the case when he plays New Jersey.
Looking Ahead
The homestand continues Tuesday night in Newark against the quickly-fading Philadelphia 76ers who have lost four games in a row.
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