Brooklyn Scorches Nets in 130-94 Rout Over Philadelphia

By Sean Kennedy

The Sixers need to be registered by the FDA as some sort of performance-enhancing drug for their opponents. Side effects may include mild shock at how open you are behind the three-point line, a sore neck from shaking your head in disbelief at the dumb plays of the Sixers, and occasional blurry vision when Tony Wroten runs past you. On Monday night, it was Joe Johnson’s turn to take the proverbial NBA HGH and bury the Sixers from the perimeter.

Although he’s often discussed for the overpay of his contract, the former Hawk can still shoot the ball when given the chance, and he proved it by hitting 8 threes in the third quarter alone. Those 8 threes tied Michael Redd for the record for most three-pointers made in a quarter. Johnson outscored the Sixers 29-25 in the frame, with those 29 points good for the 5th-highest total in a quarter in NBA history (h/t @jrfingerCSN). Without looking it up, I’m pretty sure the highest total was put up by Michael Jordan in the final quarter against the Monstars.

Despite the fact that Johnson was hotter than the buzz around Wolf of Wall Street, the Sixers kept going under screens against him, rather than chasing him off the line around the picks. Johnson was only too happy to take those open looks afforded to him, finishing with 37 points, his highest total as a member of the Nets.

Johnson was more than enough to beat a sloppy and disenfranchised Sixers club, but it wasn’t just him doing the damage, as Brooklyn set a franchise record by going 21-35 from three on the night. Philadelphia’s gameplan was to switch the pick-and-roll when the Nets ran it on the perimeter. As we’ve seen throughout the season, the Sixers struggled to execute that plan or any basic tenets of team defense. It was the second consecutive game the Sixers’ opponent set a club-record for made threes in a game, not the sort of history you’d like the team to be involved with.

The Sixers closed the first half on an 8-0 run to go into the locker room only down 10 points. I don’t know what Brett Brown said to the troops at halftime, but I’d be willing to bet it wasn’t let’s leave Joe Johnson and company wide-open on every possession going forward. Nevertheless, that’s exactly what the Sixers did, as Brooklyn jumped out to a 9-0 run of their own to begin the second half and never looked back.

Box Score

Notable Observations:

• Evan Turner went to the locker room less than two minutes into the game and I initially thought he might have been traded. However, it turned out that Turner had bruised the nail on his big toe, and he returned to the game to finish 3-11 for 9 points.
• The sloppy play by his team really seems to be wearing on head coach Brett Brown. After some miscommunication on a routine in-bounds pass between Thad Young and Tony Wroten resulted in a turnover and Nets bucks, Brown came out to half court to call timeout. We saw him sharply reprimanding Wroten on the second-year pro’s way to the bench.
• In the closing seconds of the first half, the Sixers had an easy 2-on-1 fast break, but James Anderson threw one of the worst alley-oop passes to Lorenzo Brown you’ll ever see, hitting the front of the rim with the toss. Brandon Davies, to his credit, hustled down the floor to collect the offensive rebound, but missed the uncontested follow-up lay-in as the buzzer sounded. The entire sequence perfectly encapsulated the spirit of the Sixers performance.
• Fun with announcing: In discussing the Nets needing to recover from some injuries, Malik Rose referred to Andrei Kirilenko as ‘the Russian kid’. Kirilenko is a 32-year old veteran who looks 52; I don’t think he’s been referred to as a kid since Russia was the Soviet Union. Also, when the Brooklyn crowd was chanting for Reggie Evans to enter the game, Marc Zumoff said that even Reggie might score in this contest, which was some hilarious shade toward the Sixers from the typical company man.

Tanking Implications: 

It’s fortunate Sixers fans are half-hoping for losses this season because otherwise there wouldn’t have been too much in the way of positive vibes to take away from this mauling. James Anderson wasn’t terrible, hitting a few outside shots and aggressively attacking the basket on his way to a team-high 17 points and Lavoy Allen actually looked like he had a pulse on the glass. The best news on the night was the announcement that the team expects Michael Carter-Williams to practice this week. But other than that, it was a pretty depressing effort from Philadelphia and only the hope of a franchise-changing superstar arriving through the draft makes these types of performances bearable. 3/5 tanks.